Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said the party will “win the next election” by following a set of key principles she has set out. Opening the party’s annual conference in Birmingham, she cast the Tories as a “new” Conservative outfit compared with the one that lost the last election.
‘The Right Way’ document unveiled
Mrs Badenoch’s 95-page document, called “The Right Way”, lays out her basis for how a future Conservative government would act should it seize power. She drew a parallel with how her predecessor Margaret Thatcher built support for the Conservatives in the late 1970s with a political treatise called “The Right Approach”.
Speaking at the opening of the party conference, Mrs Badenoch said: “When we win the next election, and we will, we are going to need to hit the ground running.” She added: “We will need to be ready from day one, having already shown people what kind of government we are going to be, and that is why today I have published The Right Way.”
Referring to Baroness Thatcher’s The Right Approach, published in 1976, she said: “We governed for 18 years after that, because we started with the right foundations, and we are going to do the same again.”
Principles for governing
Mrs Badenoch said the late Sir Alex Younger, a former head of MI6, had spoken to the Conservative Parliamentary Party in February and advised them to set out tenets for governing to avoid entering power in future without an agenda.
A major line of thought throughout the document is that government should not spread its resources too thinly, but should be strong in the areas in which “the state is required”: defence, borders, public order, the rule of law and essential infrastructure.
“There is always an emergency. There is always a good reason to spend government money or time on something, but we don’t have unlimited resources. Government is about making tough choices, deciding how you will spread your resources, what you are going to focus your time on,” Mrs Badenoch told the conference.
The “fundamental analysis” at the heart of the document is that government needs to create the conditions for economic growth, and then get out of the way to allow businesses “the freedom to grow our economy”, the Tory leader added. The document also acknowledges failures in the approach of previous Conservative governments to net zero, immigration and how Brexit was delivered.
Response to Labour’s conference
Mrs Badenoch’s analysis comes a week after Prime Minister Andy Burnham set out a series of major policy interventions at Labour’s party conference in Liverpool. The Tory leader sought to offer a foil to the Prime Minister, who has described his offer to the electorate as underpinned by a “clear theory” of economic growth.
She disagreed, and suggested Mr Burnham’s promises will “all come to nought”. Mrs Badenoch added: “Keir Starmer didn’t have a plan. That’s why he’s gone. Andy Burnham doesn’t have one either and that is why I know the announcements he is making will all come to nought. We have to be different, different from Labour, and different from the party we were two years ago.”
As she arrived at the conference on Saturday, Mrs Badenoch cast the Tories as a “new Conservative Party”, adding: “We’re not the party that the public said no to in 2024.” Heading into the conference, the Tories have announced plans to build 50,000 new prison places, and axe the upper limit for 30 days’ free childcare a week, so wealthy parents can access the offer. Despite apparent optimism among senior Tories, the party remains behind both Labour and Reform UK in opinion polls.
