Women know the scene: you are sitting in a meeting dominated by men, make a suggestion and watch it disappear into the ether. Then, ten minutes later, a man repeats exactly the same idea and suddenly the room fills with nods and approving murmurs. You are left staring in disbelief at the sheer audacity of it.

That is precisely how I feel now. After being patronised for years whenever I argued that Kemi Badenoch was a serious political force and a potential future prime minister, I am now being patronised by people making the same discovery — as though I have not been saying it for months. Grrr.

When Badenoch became Conservative Party leader in 2024, the conventional wisdom was that she would be gone by Christmas. I disagreed. When the verdict shifted to, ‘Perhaps she is not so bad, but it will not last,’ I disagreed again. And while others were enthusiastically backing Nigel Farage and writing off the Conservatives as finished, I still disagreed.

When Robert Jenrick, Danny Kruger and Malcolm Offord moved to Reform and commentators declared that the Conservatives’ cause was lost, I disagreed then, too. Not because I am a political genius or a clairvoyant, but because Badenoch’s qualities have been obvious. She is the real deal.

Now the opinion polls are starting to suggest the same. Following the boost from Kemi Badenoch’s conference speech, the Conservatives have moved ahead of Reform for the first time since the election, reaching 23 per cent — just one point behind Labour on 24.

When I first admitted to being a Kemi Badenoch supporter, I was careful to acknowledge that she was not perfect.

‘Yes, she is prone to gaffes, yes, she can be strong meat and yes, she gets under people’s noses. But when the Conservative Party has been reduced to a directionless, ineffective rump of 119 seats against Labour’s 410, isn’t that precisely what you want?’ I wrote in 2024.

I also argued that Badenoch possessed many of the qualities conspicuously absent from modern politics: authenticity, determination, vision and an unshakeable sense of self that was neither negotiable nor easily changed. The Conservatives needed a leader with courage, confidence and, above all, consistency. She clearly had all three.

Perhaps most importantly, she was the only politician I had seen who appeared unafraid to make difficult arguments. Her position in the debate over transgender issues — including biological sex, women’s safe spaces and self-identification — was a clear example.

She knew what she believed, said so plainly and refused to be bullied or cancelled by her critics. While many politicians seemed willing to appease online mobs and yield to fashionable orthodoxies, Badenoch stood her ground.

In a forest of bending reeds, she appeared to be the one solid oak.

Sometimes a political party has to reach rock bottom before it can begin to recover. That was the position of the Conservatives two years ago, when Badenoch took over. Since then, it is difficult to overstate the extent of the transformation she has brought about.

When she became leader, the internal feuds that had damaged the Conservatives during their years in government were still raging. Robert Jenrick, her rival in the leadership contest, was a notable example, continuing to promote his own ambitions well into Badenoch’s time as leader.

Did that irritate her? I am sure it did. But did she allow it to undermine her? No. She let his vanity run its course. When he eventually defected, she appeared pleased. Reform, she said, was welcome to him.

‘I won’t apologise to those walking away because they don’t like the new direction,’ she said. ‘We only want Conservatives.’

Anyone else, she added, should ‘get out of the way’.

EXPLORE MORE: ‘World’s tallest woman’ Xiao Mo dubbed ‘The Giant’ dies at 23 ‘from the cold’ after finding fame as Chinese TikTok star – NewsFinale

That uncompromising, ‘my way or the highway’ attitude has been a defining feature of Badenoch’s leadership. At first it came across as abrasive. As new people have joined her team, however, she has softened it to some extent. Even so, a political party cannot be led entirely by committee — and Keir Starmer offered the clearest evidence of that.

There is more to Badenoch than the hard exterior. Beneath it is someone with genuine kindness and a sweetness of character that inspires friendship and loyalty. She has a sharp understanding of human nature, along with an unusual wisdom when handling difficult situations — as her response to the Jenrick episode demonstrated.

This means that while she can be fierce and intense at the despatch box, she can be light-hearted and engaging elsewhere, as the situation requires.

As she has grown into the role, she’s become more skilled at showing this other side of her character, which is why, unlike so many politicians, the more people see of her the more they like her.

It’s not rocket science. Ultimately, there is just something very appealing about a woman who knows her own mind, has a clear sense of purpose and is unafraid to challenge preconceptions.

Her latest policy proposals – removing the financial cliff-edge on childcare, ditching inheritance tax and stamp duty, halving national insurance contributions for workers aged 21-24, reintroducing the two-child benefit cap, scrapping net zero – have the political classes clutching their pearls. But out there in the real world, they make sense.

She still has a way to go. If her assessment is correct, and Andy Burnham does call an early December election, then she will have quite the fight on her hands convincing the electorate to give her party another chance.

But fighting is what she does best. And, so far, she has proved every one of her doubters wrong.

A wicked role for Florence

Along with many others, I’ve been gripped by the new TV adaptation of John Steinbeck’s epic novel, East Of Eden, starring Florence Pugh as the personification of evil, Cathy Ames. She is a wickedly complex character, played brilliantly by Pugh, who showcases her astonishing acting range here. 

At the heart of this story is a woman whose beauty masks a dark and twisted soul, who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. In a world more than ever obsessed with appearance, it’s a stark reminder that beauty is not always a mark of goodness.

Is the dining room going the same way as the dodo? It would seem so. According to new research, almost a quarter of homeowners have turned theirs into something else – a games room, a home office, a yoga studio. This is fine, I suppose, if you have a kitchen big enough for a table, but the idea of doing away with a dining room altogether seems so grim.

Trump’s gone for glamour…again

Donald Trump’s new press secretary is glamorous blonde TV presenter Katie Zacharia, all ‘t**s and teeth’, as my grandmother used to say – and almost indistinguishable from his last appointee to the role, Karoline Leavitt. 

Before that there was Kayleigh McEnany, who served in the role during Trump’s first administration. His foreign policy may be as changeable as the weather, but when it comes to top female aides, never let it be said The Donald isn’t reliably consistent.

There’s having a good relationship with your ex and there’s officiating at their wedding. Just a month after his divorce to Jennifer Meyer, actor Tobey Maguire presided over her nuptials to Geoffrey Ogunlesi, a man taller, younger and richer than him. Judging by the look on Maguire’s face, he couldn’t be happier for them. Either that, or he knows something Mr Ogunlesi doesn’t…

Andy Burnham does love going backwards, doesn’t he? It’s like he’s permanently stuck in reverse. First it’s back to the Seventies, and now he wants to take Britain back to some pre-Brexit utopia that never existed – and certainly doesn’t exist now. Also, someone needs to tell him that when he gets his fake tan done, he mustn’t forget the eyelids. They are beyond the pale. Like his policies.

There was little doubt that Russell Brand’s wife, Laura, would stand firmly beside him when he arrived at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Monday.

Holding his hand as the comedian entered the courtroom and again as he left after the jury was sworn in, Laura made clear that she is supporting her husband of nine years. Brand is facing three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault.

Wearing a chocolate-brown trouser suit by American designer Veronica Beard, white trainers and sunglasses, Laura offered the faintest of smiles as she climbed into a chauffeur-driven people carrier outside the court.

She is expected to return to court throughout her husband’s estimated ten-week trial, despite being around 4,500 miles from the Brand family’s new home in Florida: a $2.5 million (£1.89 million) waterfront property at Santa Rosa Beach.

For Laura, who has never appeared entirely at ease in the public eye, it represents a notably defiant stance. However, a long-term associate of the 38-year-old author and illustrator said supporting her husband was “the only one she would possibly ever make”, because she has never questioned his innocence.

People familiar with the couple say Laura’s loyalty to the 51-year-old Brand has been “huge” as he prepared for a trial involving allegations spanning a decade, from 1999 to 2009. The accusations predate their marriage in 2017, although the pair briefly dated in 2007.

“What Russell is accused of happened long before he and Laura got back together,” an associate said. “It isn’t going to be easy, but they are determined to get through this.”

“Laura is absolutely besotted with Russell; she always has been. Being there on day one was a must for her.”

Laura was not with Brand throughout Monday’s proceedings, with those close to the family pointing out that she also has three children to care for. She is nevertheless expected to make several more trips to Southwark in the weeks ahead.

The couple are understood to be staying in the Home Counties and are expected to spend time with Laura’s parents.

Laura is the daughter of Ryder Cup-winning golfer Bernard Gallacher and his wife, Lesley. She grew up with her elder sister, sports presenter Kirsty, and her brother, amateur golfer Jamie, in a six-bedroom mansion on the exclusive Wentworth Estate in Virginia Water, Surrey.

Her neighbours included the late Sir Bruce Forsyth and Sir Cliff Richard. Laura attended the £45,000-a-year St George’s School in Ascot, where Princess Beatrice was one of her contemporaries.

After studying art at university, Laura entered the restaurant industry and worked on the opening of Electric Diner on Portobello Road in Notting Hill. The venue was owned by the Soho House group.

Her life took a different turn in 2015. Laura, then in her late 20s, was recovering from a painful breakup when a friend encouraged her to take a walk near the Grand Union canal in east London, close to her home.

The walk became a sliding-doors moment. As Laura made her way along the towpath, she encountered Brand, who was also single and dealing with the end of his relationship with US pop star Katy Perry.

Brand recognised Laura immediately, having met her before. The pair had briefly dated in 2007, when she was a 19-year-old art student. Brand was then at the height of his success, hosting his own Radio 2 show, presenting the reality programme Big Brother’s Big Mouth and its spin-off, Big Brother: According to Russell Brand, while also touring the UK with his stand-up show Russell Brand: Only Joking.

Laura was one of several women Brand dated during that period. His former partners also included Rod Stewart’s daughter Kimberly, Big Brother star Imogen Thomas and Georgina Baillie, the granddaughter of Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs. Brand made lewd remarks about Baillie during a prank phone call on his Radio 2 programme with Jonathan Ross.

But their reunion came at a time when Brand, who was approaching 40, was yearning to settle down and marry again after splitting with Katy in 2011. ‘My ex had literally moved out of our flat that day, and I was heartbroken, with mascara running down my face,’ Laura told Grazia five years after their chance meeting.

‘As we came onto the footpath, Russell was standing there. It was like he’d organised it. I hadn’t seen him for years. He was so different. We both immediately knew it was going to be serious.’

They rekindled their romance, moving in together almost immediately.

READ MORE: Trump Shares Video of Man Killed in Fatal Tiger Attack at Zoo

‘Laura was besotted with Russell,’ a friend told me. ‘She wanted to mend him. She had known him all of those years back when he was the man to date, but by the time she met him again he had been through the mill with Katy Perry.’ Laura is the woman who, sources claim, tamed him after years as a drug-taking, hell-raising lothario who boasted of having bedded 1,000 women.

‘He was over that by the time he met Laura, way past it all,’ says a former friend. ‘There were never any rumours about his love life after they began their relationship.’

Brand and Laura wasted little time setting up their life together. Their first child, Mabel, now nine, came along a year after they met.

Then, in 2017, they married at Remenham Church near their home in Henley-on-Thames, joined by famous guests such Jonathan Ross, Noel Gallagher and David Baddiel.

The newlyweds welcomed daughter Peggy a year later and their son Herb in 2023.

Meanwhile, Laura gave up her career in hospitality and began writing books. In 2020, she published The Joy Journal for Magical Everyday Play for children. Next, came The Joy Journal for Grown-ups and then Slow Down And Be Here Now.

Life was idyllic for the Brands as they enjoyed a quiet life in rural Oxfordshire. Married life consisted of dogs, chickens and lots of cats.

The couple also bought a narrowboat for weekend cruises and started working as wellness gurus, hosting a festival called Community with Laura + Russell Brand in Hay-on-Wye in the summer of 2023.

The three-day vegan, alcohol-free event included holistic therapies, a practical life workshop, canoeing and comedy. It was quite the contrast to the Brand I used to see hanging out in the hippest of haunts in north London. ‘Russell didn’t want to be in the limelight any more,’ says a former friend of the star. ‘He wanted to escape and Laura was the perfect person to escape with.’

Before that, Brand’s love life was barely out of the headlines – hardly a surprise when you look at his romantic back catalogue which features the likes of Kate Moss, Jemima Khan and even Peaches Geldof.

Once hanging off Brand’s arm was the finest status symbol in showbusiness. Today, few women would want to be in Laura’s shoes.

Back in 2023, in an investigation carried out by The Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches, five women publicly accused Brand of sexual assault, as well as sexual and emotional abuse. Brand denied all allegations, saying in response that he had been ‘very, very promiscuous’, but that his relationships had been ‘absolutely, always consensual’.

Those claims led to the Metropolitan Police opening an investigation, which saw Brand charged in April last year with two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault, in relation to alleged offences involving four women between 1999 and 2005.

New charges were brought in December last year, alleging one count of rape and one of sexual assault against two women, said to have taken place in London in 2009.

Today, there is no sign of Laura on social media. She deleted her Instagram in 2023 following the investigation into Brand. She has also not published any books recently and she appears to have ditched her plans to become a wellness guru.

In April last year, Brand announced they had moved to the US – but not before he was baptised in the River Thames by Bear Grylls.

‘Seemingly, they wanted a new start,’ an associate of the pair tells me. ‘Russell has maintained his innocence from the word go but the noise around it all is a lot.’

In America, they live on the trendy Scenic Highway 30A, the winding coastal corridor along Florida’s Emerald Coast, which locals call the Hamptons of the South. Laura’s move to the US, leaving behind her own beloved family, begs the question of just what her father Bernard makes of his son-in-law?

While it’s unknown what he says about the allegations, one showbiz source says he was always ‘very fond’ of Brand. Meanwhile, Lesley, whom Bernard married in 1973, is said to be an ‘extremely supportive’ mother.

As for Kirsty, 12 years her sister’s senior, she too has been very public in sharing her support for her brother-in-law. Back in 2023, she shared a video Brand posted on Instagram protesting his innocence alongside a red heart emoji. Her sympathetic post prompted much backlash and she later removed it.

Kirsty is said to ‘always be loyal’ to Laura. That sisterly bond, say those who know Laura, is going to be crucial in helping her get through the coming weeks as she’s forced to hear those allegations levelled at her husband.