They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Perhaps somebody should tell the Conservatives.

The Tories appear to have decided that the route back to power must involve leading the charge against the Labour Government’s plans to give private renters more rights.

The Renters’ Rights Bill, currently on its way through Parliament, would stop tenants being evicted through no fault of their own, prevent landlords from taking more rent than the amount the property had been marketed at, and force housing providers to carry out required repairs promptly. And the Tories are opposing it.

Their leader Kemi Badenoch seems to think that it is not hard-pressed renters who need more support, but private landlords. Late ijn 2024, she authored an article insisting that landlords “provide a vital service” and were overwhelmingly “people who care for their tenants and ask only that their property be respected and a fair rent is paid”.

She even went as far as suggesting that giving renters more protections from eviction was an attack on fundamental property rights. She did not attempt to explain why, in this nation apparently full of kind-hearted, altruistic private landlords, rents have risen faster than inflation, and one in four privately rented homes do not meet the basic safety standards.

The headline on Badenoch’s article was “Labour’s Renters’ Rights Bill is a disaster for young people”. But the content of the piece, as well as the publication she decided to write it for – The Daily Telegraph, whose regular young readers could probably be counted on one hand – made clear who her real target audience was: Britain’s private landlords.

Now, The Guardian has reported that the Conservatives aren’t just siding with landlords but actively........

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