Kemi Badenoch’s claim that Reform UK is a “woke” party is an audacious move that will leave millions of Britons scratching their heads. When asked to name Britain’s wokest politicians, few would put the likes of Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson and Zia Yusuf in the top 600.

These are not men who are plagued with accusations of political correctness. They do not worry about how their speeches will be dissected at Islington dinner parties, and none is likely to consider it sexist to talk about a “manhole cover”.

What is she on about? Her attention-grabbing claim is part of a strategy to sink Reform’s ambitions to replace the Conservatives as the major party of the Right and win power.

For Mrs Badenoch, wokeness is not about supporting trendy Left-wing causes but having a “victim mentality”, complaining that “people are doing this to us.” As she told the Political Currency podcast: “It’s all moaning and whinging and not proper solutions. It’s about power dynamics and how to get power, not actually solutions and how to fix things.”

She is intent on painting Reform as a party of moaners and whingers while presenting herself as an engineer of solutions to Britain’ biggest problems. Though she has moved her party to the Right – most notably with her commitment to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights – she wants Britons to believe the Tories can pull the nation together.

She said: “What I’m not going to do is demonise certain groups, whether it’s billionaires or immigrants or the wealthy, or NHS workers, or the public sector – we’re not doing that. We’re not setting groups against each other, and Reform does that.”

Will it work? The Conservatives are in a tough spot. Politico’s poll of polls puts them on 19%, behind a Labour party (23%) that is reaping the benefits of a change of leader and a collapse in support for the Greens.

She can find some encouragement if she takes a glance at Ladbrokes’s odds on who will be the next prime minister. Mrs Badenoch has joined Mr Farage as the joint favourite to one day replace Mr Burnham (7/2).

Reform will scoff at Tory attempts to portray them as bereft of ideas. Karl Williams, research director and migration expert at the Centre for Policy Studies, is quitting the venerable think tank founded by Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph to work for Reform. This is a vote of confidence in Mr Farage’s party by someone who clearly believes the veteran Brexiteer may soon have the chance to turn policies into action. Meanwhile, Zia Yusuf, who aspires to be Reform’s Home Secretary, has unveiled plans to make chief executives and directors “criminally liable for illegal working”.

Mrs Badenoch doubtless dreams of seeing Reform suffer a Greens-style slump in popularity and she will do all she can to convince voters it cannot be trusted with power. But if Mr Farage returns to Parliament with a larger majority after winning the Clacton by-election, he will argue the Conservatives need to wake up to a new reality where Reform is the standard bearer of the British Right.

A third place finish at the next election would be a disaster for the Conservatives and Mrs Badenoch. To look like a party leader on the verge of winning power, the Tories need to start topping the polls soon.