Paul McGilchrist and Prof John Denham examine Tory identity politics under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership. Plus a letter from Shaun Soper on the potential Conservative leader waiting in the wings

Nesrine Malik is right that, as with Rishi Sunak, Kemi Badenoch’s elevation to Tory leader is “a first that signifies nothing” (Opinion, 4 November). Conservatives are fond of downplaying the significance of colour as purely happenstantial, yet boasting about their promotion of those possessing it. It is a pity then that skin colour seems to signify so much they find problematic in those beyond the embrace of Westminster and Tory constituency parties.

Badenoch is chief among those on whom the party’s inclusive credentials depend, but who spend their time in the vanguard of culture and immigration wars, attacking, undermining and inhibiting those for whom colour is a defining characteristic.