Tory leader Kemi Badenoch promised to rebuild her party’s reputation on the economy in her conference speech on Wednesday, with a new “golden rule” on debt reduction.
Three years after former Conservative Party prime minister Liz Truss was blamed for crashing Britain’s finances, Ms Badenoch told delegates that half of every pound saved in spending cuts would go on reducing the UK’s towering national debt.
“Every pound we save will be put to work,” said Ms Badenoch, who promised that the rest would be used to fund tax cuts and invest in Britain’s flaccid economy, should her party be returned to power.
The savings, she maintained, would allow a Tory government to abolish stamp duty, which she described as “an un-conservative tax”.
RM Block
An immediate return to government seemed to be far from the forefront of the minds of some of her colleagues, however, at the myriad fringe events taking place around the Manchester Central Convention Complex the night before Ms Badenoch’s speech.
They were more focused on immediate matters at hand.
One former Tory cabinet member who spoke to The Irish Times said he was just relieved that the party had got through its four-day conference without any big internal drama. “Nothing has really gone wrong. That is an achievement in itself,” he said.
Other senior Tory supporters of Ms Badenoch mused on Tuesday night whether the leader would get enough time in the job to implement her ideas.
Potential leadership rivals such as frontbencher Robert Jenrick held their fire during the conference, but with the Conservative Party’s reputation for regicide, talk of Ms Badenoch’s future was never far away.
This year’s Tory conference was smaller than previous years, as the party grapples with its role in opposition after 14 years in government that ended with Labour’s landslide election win last year.
Many delegates had already left the Manchester centre before Ms Badenoch’s big speech. But the party faithful who chose to remain queued early, with the first lines appearing outside the main hall by 9am, in advance of her speech scheduled for 11am.
A warm-up video showed to the crowd who entered the hall early set the economic tone for Ms Badenoch’s speech. It showed her visiting an agricultural waste-to-energy plant, as she promised to boost British business investment.
Although the convention hall soon filled up, its capacity was deliberately reduced by Conservative Party organisers, who set it up with vast sections cut off from use. It appeared to be roughly only a quarter of the size of the room filled last week by Labour’s prime minister Keir Starmer in his conference speech in Liverpool.
After several warm-up acts comprising assorted councillors and mayoral candidates, party apparatchiks prepared for the beginning of Ms Badenoch’s speech at 11.15am, behind schedule. On cue, the room rose for a rendition of God Save the King, before Ms Badenoch walked onstage in bright white garb, a striking visual image against the blue backdrop behind the stage.
She received a warm ovation from delegates. The Tory leader initially looked nervous, however, punctuating her opening remarks with a series of deep breaths as she steadied herself for what her critics argue may be her only conference speech as leader.
Ms Badenoch soon warmed to her theme, however. She said Britain was in “steady decline” under Labour. “I reject that fate,” she said.
She portrayed the Conservative Party as her “family” before promising bold action to fix Britain’s ills.
“Being timid will get us nowhere,” she said.
Earlier in the conference, shadow chancellor Mel Stride sought to position the party as a bulwark of fiscal responsibility among its rivals which, he said, were addicted to overspending. He promised £47 billion of spending cuts, with the bulk coming from cuts to foreign aid and welfare.
Ms Badenoch’s new “economic golden rule” holds that 50 per cent of this would go towards reducing its £2.7 trillion debt pile.
Other parties including Reform UK believed Britain had a “magic money tree”, she said.
“But it [all] starts with fiscal responsibility,” she said. “We have to get the debt down.”
