Kemi Badenoch has framed the 'Nasty party' label as a badge of honour, insisting that the party's plans to cut people's benefits are no more than 'common sense'. Speaking to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, the Conservative leader rejected the term 'nasty' in favour of 'commonsense', arguing that something had to be done about the poorest and most vulnerable people in society.
A return to old-fashioned unpleasantness
Badenoch's view contrasts sharply with that of Theresa May, who told the Tory conference in 2002 that under Iain Duncan Smith the Conservatives had become 'the Nasty party'. Within a few years, David Cameron had moved the Tories closer to the centre, and by 2010 he was prime minister.
For Badenoch, being the Nasty party is an aspiration. She argued that people had had it far too good with austerity, Brexit, Covid and the Liz Truss mini-budget. The country needed a reality check and a return to old-fashioned unpleasantness, she said, with the physically and mentally ill needing a short sharp shock of intense labour from 8am to 8pm.
Shadow home secretary's vigilante pledge
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp marked the beginning of the Tory conference with an interview with the Sun, identifying himself as a one-man vigilante force. He personally guaranteed that Birmingham would be a crime-free zone for the next four days, vowing to arrest all shoplifters and check up on people who hadn't paid their TV licence.
Badenoch's conference began with the traditional BBC interview with Kuenssberg, where she tried to be the cosiest version of herself. She drew attention to the party's new credo, a pamphlet called The Right Way, which sets out six principles of Conservatism. Asked to name anything she had changed her mind about, she came up with nothing.
Free childcare and pensioner pledges
Badenoch also proposed giving everyone who makes more than £100,000 a year unlimited free childcare, arguing that free childcare was wasted on people on the minimum wage because they couldn't be trusted to spend the money wisely. She said most working-class kids were bound to end up on benefits anyway, so why encourage them from the moment they were born.
On pensioners, she said the triple lock would be retained, even though half the shadow cabinet know it's completely unaffordable. She added that this would be paid for by cutting benefits for the 10 million scroungers who were cheating the system. When Kuenssberg asked her to verify that figure, Badenoch shook her head, saying it was just a well-known fact that she had made up.
Conference atmosphere and future direction
Badenoch also said she would be building 50,000 more prison spaces. In the studio, Penny Mordaunt declared it to be the best interview a Tory leader had ever given, having passed the test to be admitted to the MPs' candidate list.
Over in the conference centre, the complex was strangely quiet, with the main hall not full. Those who were there seemed happy enough, possibly delighted that things aren't going even worse. The party is still only four points in the polls off its disastrous 2024 election result.
The conference features an AI-generated reproduction of the Bayeux tapestry, a series of tableaux leading to the moment Badenoch saves the world. The party, still regarded as toxic by the country, is determined to double down on its toxicity and track ever further to the right.
