Kemi Badenoch has vowed to face down Andy Burnham over his threat to reverse Brexit, warning that he is dangerous for Britain. The Tory leader lashed out after the Prime Minister confirmed that the UK could rejoin the European Union.
In a blistering attack, she also savaged the Labour leader’s party conference speech in which he axed the pension triple lock while threatening to tear up the UK’s voting system and bring in mass nationalisation. Speaking exclusively to the Express, Mrs Badenoch warned that “old-school socialist Labour” is back, which is “dangerous” for the country.
‘I’m the best person to take him on’
“Yes, [he is dangerous] and that's why I'm the best person to take him on because my policies are rooted very firmly in Conservative principles,” she said.
Mr Burnham triggered widespread anger in his speech on Tuesday when he said Brexit had done “more harm than good” and promised to set out the options to the country around the time of a UK-EU summit later this year. He went one step further on Wednesday, acknowledging he could go “all the way” and propose rejoining the EU.
Mrs Badenoch, who voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, promised to fight Labour all the way in defending Brexit.
‘Refighting that battle’
“It is amazing that he thinks that refighting that battle is what he wants to spend his time on,” she said. “We went round and round and round in circles. It took ages to negotiate with the EU, and we finally did it.
“What we didn't do was start actually using the benefits of leaving the EU to make the country richer. That's what I want to do. I'm focused on the future. The idea that Andy Burnham, who can't even negotiate with his backbenchers, is going to negotiate with the EU and get a good deal. I mean, we're not going to get in on the same terms that we were in before. So I don't think he's serious at all.”
She branded Mr Burnham’s claims that the small boats crisis is a result of Brexit as “the stupidest thing” and “lazy talk”. “He is one of those people who thinks everything that's going wrong is because we left the EU and we've got to go back in,” she said. “I am very ready to face down Andy Burnham. I'm looking forward to it, actually.”
Triple lock and welfare
In a wide-ranging interview, just days before the Conservative Party conference kicks off in Birmingham, Mrs Badenoch also took aim at the Prime Minister’s decision to axe the pension triple lock.
“So the triple lock is our policy,” she said. “We brought it in when we were in office in 2010. He's saying that he wants to scrap it. My view is that he needs to cut welfare. The amount of money he's saving when it eventually comes in is £15billion a year. The amount of extra money we would have had to pay on welfare while Labour was in office is £50billion. He doesn't want to deal with that, so he's not dealing with today's problems. He's again promising jam tomorrow. I don't think that's right.”
But Mrs Badenoch refused to commit to the triple lock beyond this parliament. “What we need is growth,” she said. “So rather than doing what Andy Burnham is doing, which is focusing on a symptom of a lack of growth, I want to deal with the cause, which is the growth itself. If we were getting richer as a country, nobody would even be talking about the triple lock.”
Neither would she confirm that she intends to announce her party is planning to scrap the hated inheritance tax next week, pointing out that the conference would be “aspirational”.
Emotional speech and tax warnings
In his own seismic conference speech in Liverpool, Mr Burnham pledged to axe the triple lock, which has protected the value of the state pension, to help pay for a national care service to deliver social care. In an emotional address, the PM fought back tears as he dedicated the policy to his father Roy, who died this month after spending his final days in a care home with Alzheimer's.
Mrs Badenoch said she empathised with Mr Burnham’s public show of emotion, saying she would have done the same. “Well, I lost my dad four and a half years ago, so I know what that's like,” she said. “I mean, even now, I get emotional talking about it. So I think that it's nice to see the human side of a prime minister. I think it's something which reminds people that you know, no matter which part of the political spectrum we might be on, we all have to deal with the same things, and most of us will have to deal with the loss of our parents. I'm not surprised that he got emotional. I would have if I'd been in the same situation.”
Turning her sights to the upcoming Budget on October 28, the Tory leader predicted that Chancellor John Healey would clobber Britons with more tax rises. “Tax rises are coming,” she warned. Following on from her fiery Budget response to Rachel Reeves last year, she confirmed that “badass Kemi” would be back at the despatch box again. “Always, always,” she said. “I want people to always know that my intention is to channel their feelings, and if that requires me being badass, then yeah, that will be.”
Mrs Badenoch took aim at Reform UK, saying “the less they see of them, the less they like”. She insisted her party would become the dominant force on the Right of British politics and that her “ambition” is to have a majority in parliament. “I still have a long way to go to get where I want to be, but that is the ambition,” she said. “I'm confident we can do it, but we're not out of the woods yet.”
