Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch will close the party conference with a warning that the next election will be a “battle for the soul of the nation” and a promise to turn the economy around.
The Opposition leader will say that “something is going to break” without better growth, as she accuses Labour of wanting to “wind back the clock to failed ideas of the past”. The Tories have put the economy top of their agenda at their conference in Birmingham, focusing less on the “culture wars” that dominated previous years.
Fight not seen for more than half a century
In her leader’s speech on Wednesday, Mrs Badenoch is expected to say: “Conference, there is a fight coming in British politics. A fight that we have not seen in this country for more than half a century. It will be a battle for the soul of this nation. A battle of ideas. A battle that goes to the very core of who we are and what kind of country we want to be.”
Mrs Badenoch will pitch the Tories, who are behind Labour and narrowly trailing Reform UK in opinion polls, as the party “fighting again for the belief that what people earn belongs to them, not government”. Echoing former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher, she will say the Tories offer “the right way” and argue “no one else is going to deliver a stronger economy and a stronger country”.
“We are running out of money and running out of time to put it right,” she will say. “Conference, we have a fight on our hands and we need to be ready. Unless we start creating more value, unless we start growing our economy, something is going to break.”
Golden economic rule and Labour attack
She will highlight what the Tories describe as their “golden economic rule”, which promises that 50p of every pound they expect to save through policy changes will go towards cutting the budget deficit. “The right way starts by living within our means. Every family and every business knows this,” Mrs Badenoch will tell delegates. “Labour’s choices are adding billions to the national debt. Our children will already inherit a more dangerous world. They should not inherit our bloated debts as well.”
Taking aim at Labour under Andy Burnham, she will say: “They think that your income, your pension and your savings are theirs to take and then hand out as they see fit. They claim that what they are doing is compassionate but we know that these ideas will make every single person in this country poorer. Your taxes will be higher. Your bills will go up. You will find it harder and harder to make ends meet. Just because these ideas are delivered on TikTok doesn’t make them any less dangerous than they have always been.”
Policy pledges and divisions
Mrs Badenoch sought to distil her key guiding principles in a booklet published on Sunday, arguing that Government should be strong in the areas in which “the state is required” such as “defence, borders, public order, the rule of law and essential infrastructure”. The booklet, titled The Right Way and inspired by a similar document setting out the tenets of Thatcherism in the 1970s, says there were failures in the approach of previous Conservative governments to net zero, immigration and how Brexit was delivered.
The Tories have used conference to unveil a raft of new policy pledges as they seek to reverse their fortunes after suffering their worst-ever electoral defeat in 2024. They include halving the rate of employer national insurance on earnings for workers aged between 21 to 24, scrapping the so-called “mansion tax” on properties in England with a value higher than £2 million, cutting red tape and abolishing arms-length bodies including the Environment Agency, and investing £10 billion over 10 years in a new “Britannia Shield” defence system.
Political opponents have accused the Conservatives of playing “fantasy economics” by understating the cost of their plans, which the Tories insist are fully funded. Questions also linger over the Tories’ long-term commitment to the triple lock, which Prime Minister Mr Burnham has pledged to adjust in order to help fund a new national care service. Mrs Badenoch has said current Conservative policy is to keep the state pension guarantee but said it would be “difficult” to commit to reinstating the policy if Labour changed or scrapped it.
