Kemi Badenoch's Tory leadership speech sparks comparisons to Keir Starmer's 'toolmaker' line

After reigniting her feud with Doctor Who star David Tennant over the weekend, former business secretary Kemi Badenoch has launched her bid to succeed Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party – except people already think her ‘Renewal 2030’ speech on Monday contained a line which could become just as much of a meme as Sir Keir Starmer’s dad being a toolmaker.

In a speech which also saw the ex-minister for women and equalities slam “identity politics”, Badenoch claimed the UK “desperately needs an engineer” – a reference to the fact she has a degree in computer systems engineering from the University of Sussex.

“Engineers accept reality, engineers are honest, engineers get stuff done, I am an engineer," she said.

“I want to help us rebuild the party, rewire the state, reboot the economy, revive our country and make it go places.”

To further hammer home the engineering message, the speech was held at London’s Institution of Engineering and Technology.

However, social media users familiar with the lines pushed by Starmer and the Labour Party believe Badenoch may be taking a leaf out of the book of her rivals, given the anecdote that Starmer’s father was a toolmaker became somewhat of a meme during the recent general election:

Indeed, when Starmer was interviewed by Beth Rigby on Sky News in the run up to the 4 July vote, he was met with laughter from a live audience as he told them: “When I grew up, my dad was a toolmaker, he worked in a factory.

“It’s true. My mum was a nurse, and actually, we couldn’t make ends meet, we couldn’t pay our bills.”

There’s even a dedicated website recording the times Starmer refers to his late father’s occupation.

Who knows whether we’ll hear more of Badenoch’s engineering experience over the coming weeks and months as the leadership contest continues, with Badenoch up against Tom Tugendhat (former security minister), James Cleverly (shadow foreign secretary), Robert Jenrick (ex-immigration minister), Priti Patel (former home secretary) and Mel Stride (ex-work and pensions secretary).

The candidates will be reduced to four by the end of next week via Tory MPs, with the quartet making their case to members at Conservative Party Conference, before MPs whittle it down further to the final two.

They’ll then be on the ballot papers sent out to members, with the new leader announced in November.

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