No amount of sliding in the polls can shake Kemi Badenoch’s self-belief – or alter her party’s direction | Andy Beckett

Two years in to her leadership, Badenoch continues to take the Tories ever-rightwards, into comfort-zone Conservatism

What happens to a political leader who is too sure of themself? Sometimes, huge confidence is a very useful, self-fulfilling quality: persuading party colleagues, activists, donors and voters that more can be achieved than is usually thought possible. Such utter conviction can keep everyone believing while the actual practicalities of a political project are worked out.

Yet when an air of absolute certainty turns out to be overconfidence, the bubble bursts. The politician may be revealed as disastrously complacent and lacking in judgment, having delusions of grandeur, or being fundamentally in denial. Especially in our era of online mockery and instinctive contempt for politicians, an overconfident leader can end up as a laughing stock.