Kemi Badenoch vowed to abolish inheritance tax on family homes as she rallied Conservative activists in Birmingham with a fierce attack on Labour’s “tax doom loop”.
Closing the Tory party conference, Mrs Badenoch pledged that no family home would face inheritance tax. She also promised a £1 million allowance that would be exempt from the levy.
The commitment formed part of a sharply Thatcherite vision for the country, centred on reducing the size of the state and encouraging economic growth.
Her plans also include reducing the costs faced by businesses that employ young people.
Mrs Badenoch presented the next general election—which senior Conservatives still believe could be held as early as next year—as a “battle for the soul of this nation”.
“On one side we have a party that wants to wind back the clock… we know that these ideas will make every single person in this country poorer,” she said.
Taking aim at Andy Burnham’s “eyelashes and pork scratchings” communications style, she added: “Just because these ideas are delivered on TikTok doesn’t make them any less dangerous than they have ever been.”
Mrs Badenoch said the country’s “fundamental problem” was that it is “running out of money”. “More government costs more money,” she told delegates.
She also warned the Government against delaying decisions on higher defence spending, arguing that “if you want peace you have to prepare for war”.
The speech was the conference’s main set-piece moment, coming at the end of a four-day gathering that had strengthened Mrs Badenoch’s authority.
Throughout the conference, the Conservatives set out their ambition to create a smaller state, with the aim of reviving the UK economy and restoring its competitiveness.
The party has pledged to cut a tax every year if it returns to power, including by removing the “cliff edge” that takes childcare support away from higher earners. Tougher restrictions on benefits would help provide funding.
Conservatives have also targeted Net Zero regulations and quangos. Shadow ministers have backed a major increase in defence spending, as well as plans to proceed with a third runway at Heathrow.
Kemi Badenoch warned that Western countries were “running out of money and time”
Kemi Badenoch arrived at the Tory conference with her husband Hamish ahead of her keynote speech
The shadow cabinet and Tory activists sang the national anthem as the conference ended in Birmingham
In her address, Mrs Badenoch said the country was once again facing a Left-wing Labour government that believes economic growth is “created by politicians”, alongside a prime minister who wants to “wind back the clock to failed ideas of the past”.
“They think government knows best. They think that your income, your pension and your savings are theirs to take and then hand out as they see fit,” she said.
“They claim that what they are doing is compassionate but we know that these ideas will make every single person in this country poorer.”
Mrs Badenoch accused Labour of believing that “growth is created by politicians” and of presiding over a “tax doom loop that is making us all poorer”.
She warned that ‘everything’ now depends on ending the ‘crazy’ situation of Britain borrowing tens of billions of pounds a year to pay the interest on a national debt approaching £3trillion.
Committing to make economic growth the central principle of the next Conservative government, she told conference: ‘I’ve got a plan to get Britain growing again, the kind of growth that you can actually see and feel.’
The Tory leader added: ‘Growth looks like graduates choosing between jobs instead of choosing between job centres.
‘There will be construction jobs because we will have scrapped obscure rules like the Aarhus Convention, how many of you have heard about that? That’s what activists use to block development.
‘When we are in charge, no-one from Natural England will turn up with a clipboard to count all the bats and newts.
‘It’s time for us to build new nuclear and not worry about whether the fish can have discos. And, yes, it’s time to finally build that third runway at Heathrow.
‘Last week, Andy Burnham said Heathrow expansion was the matter for London. No, Prime Minister, you are not the mayor of Manchester any more. The future of our country’s busiest airport is not a regional matter, it is a matter for you. So, stop faffing about and let’s get this runway built.’
Mrs Badenoch pleaded with voters not to let Mr Burnham ‘fool you with his fluttering eyelashes and his pork scratchings’.
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‘When Andy Burnham was in opposition with (Jeremy) Corbyn he didn’t feel a need to change the leader. But after Keir Starmer won a landslide, Burnham couldn’t wait to get back and take it off him,’ she said.
‘That is who Andy Burnham is. Don’t let this man fool you with his fluttering eyelashes and his pork scratchings.
‘He said opening No 10 North was the best day of his life. Really? It’s got a fake Cabinet room, a cardboard cutout of Larry the cat, and the address isn’t even No 10. It’s all make believe.’
Mrs Badenoch accused the Prime Minister of setting out plans for a national care service ‘without a plan to pay for it’, before adding that reopening Brexit negotiations would be ‘a terrible idea’.
Insisting the Conservatives are ‘coming back’, Mrs Badenoch said: ‘Let me tell you I am not someone who gets written off and neither is the Conservative Party.
‘There is a reason why the Conservative Party is still here after 200 years. We have adapted to every single challenge and every single age and we are doing it again.’
She joked about defections to Reform – including former frontbencher Robert Jenrick – saying the party had an ‘export boom of drama queens’.
Mrs Badenoch dismissed the idea of an alliance with Nigel Farage, saying: ‘We are not uniting with that… people deserve better.’
But she also appealed for Reform voters to come back.
Mrs Badenoch also hit out at Reform for fuelling a debate over ‘whether my mixed race children are English’. Suella Braverman has been arguing that she is British, but of Asian background and not ethnically English.
‘I don’t want to explain to my son when we’re watching our brilliant English team play football that some people don’t think that black players are English,’ Mrs Badenoch said.
The Conservative leader said the ‘secret’ about her shadow cabinet was that ‘we actually like each other’.
‘This party is now the no-drama party, we are the no-nonsense party,’ she said.
She likened the Conservatives to Marks & Spencer, saying the brand had been criticised for being ‘a bit stuffy and stuck in the past’ and some had questioned whether it would ‘survive’.
‘Now, M&S is back in fashion – great looks at affordable prices,’ she said.
‘They have adapted their style for today’s market and people are flooding back, including me, as you’ve probably noticed this week.
‘Just like M&S, we must learn from our mistakes, win back trust and make people feel good about our party again.’
Mrs Badenoch said: ‘I want us to win in three years’ time.
‘To be honest, I want us to win next week. We are ready for an election whenever it’s called because we are the only party that understands what has gone wrong in Britain and knows how to put it right.’
Last year Mrs Badenoch delighted the party faithful by committing to scrapping stamp duty altogether.
Employers have blamed a triple whammy of changes under Labour for making it less attractive to employ young people.
These include hikes in the youth minimum wage, a wave of new employment rights and increases in NI.
Mrs Badenoch has seen a steady improvement in her ratings, although the Tory party’s polling has lagged behind
The Tory leader preparing her speech at the conference hotel yesterday
Under the new Tory plans, employer NI for workers aged 21 to 24 will be halved from 15 per cent to just 7.5 per cent.
This would allow businesses to keep an average of £1,545 for every young worker, making them more attractive to hire.
The move will cost £2.3billion a year and will be funded by cuts from existing spending as part of a new ‘Conservative Savings Plan’ to be published today.
