It will take time for voters to “understand” Kemi Badenoch but they will “grow to really respect her”, a shadow cabinet ally has said.

Shadow housing secretary Kevin Hollinrake said “she’s bold, she’s optimistic, she’s strong”, and be backed Mrs Badenoch to see off the threat from Reform UK.

He said Mrs Badenoch needed to offer some “red meat” to voters when she sets out her policies.

And he acknowledged Tory failures on migration but claimed under the new leader, people will “trust us at the next election”.

Mr Hollinrake told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “Of course there’s work to do, of course it will take time for Kemi, for people to understand what Kemi is all about.

“I worked for her for 18 months in the Department for Business and Trade as her minister, and I was nothing but impressed about the person she is.

“She’s bold, she’s optimistic, she’s strong, she says what she thinks – which in politics, I think is quite a rare commodity, sadly.

“So I think over time, people will grow to really respect her. And I think come 2029 we’ll be in a much better place in terms of convincing people to vote Conservative.”

He defended her performances at Prime Minister’s Questions so far, saying she is “growing in confidence at the despatch box” in the House of Commons and insisted she has good political judgment.

“Look at the family farms tax,” he said. “She came out straight away, as soon as that policy was introduced, and stood up on that stage in Whitehall, said to those farmers ‘we get into power, we will reverse this’.

“Kemi has been quite clear that she won’t come with new policy proposals at this point in time, but she knew that was so bad and so damaging to investment into farming that she came out against it, and the same on business property relief, which actually is a much wider issue.”

Mrs Badenoch became Tory leader in November, defeating Robert Jenrick to replace Rishi Sunak.

“People haven’t seen everything they need to see yet about Kemi Badenoch, who I think will be a fantastic leader,” Mr Hollinrake told GB News.

“They want to see some red meat in terms of policies, be it on housing, be it on the economy, be it on public services, and crucially, be it on immigration.”

With Nigel Farage’s Reform UK within a few points of Labour and the Tories in polls, Mr Hollinrake said Mrs Badenoch realises tackling migration is key.

“We set the bar too low in terms of legal migration, and we struggled with Labour in terms of opposing our measures to control illegal migration,” he told Sky News.

“But we’ve committed we will get those things right. We’ve got the levers at our disposal now.

“I understand people didn’t trust us at the last election. I do think when they see the policy proposals come forward, I think they’ll trust us at the next election.”

He also said he would not oppose tech billionaire Elon Musk donating to Reform UK, and said the Tories would welcome his money if he decided to back them instead.

“That’s his money to spend,” Mr Hollinrake said. “I think as long as it’s legal, and I think it… can be donated through a UK company which is legal.

“I say I have great faith in the British public. I don’t think the British public could be easily bought. I think they’ll decide at the next election who they think the best party is to run this country. And I think they’ll choose Conservatives.

“All donations are welcome, if he thinks we’re the right people to represent the people of this country then so be it.”