Closing summary
The Conservatives will scrap stamp duty on sales of primary residences if they win the next election, Kemi Badenoch has said, in a policy-heavy speech designed to improve her standing as Tory leader and her party’s economic credibility with voters. Badenoch told her party’s conference she would abolish the tax that new buyers in England and Northern Ireland have to pay on house purchases over £125,000, at an estimated cost of £9bn a year.
The Social Market Foundation (SMF) thinktank says that the Conservatives’ plans to abolish stamp duty “will benefit London and wealthiest homeowners the most”. Theo Betram, director at the SMF, said: “Stamp duty is a brake on the housing market, stops people moving for work, prevents more downsizing. Scrapping it solves these issues, but the benefit will disproportionately go to homeowners and to those in the south east and London, who will gain the most.”
Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch unveiled a “golden rule” to reduce government borrowing through spending cuts as she sought to rebuild the Conservatives’ reputation for economic credibility. In a speech at the Tory party conference, she promised that at least half of all the money saved through spending cuts would be used to bring down the country’s deficit, with the remainder used for tax cuts and other measures aimed at economic growth.
Responding to Kemi Badenoch’s conference speech, TUC general-secretary Paul Nowak said the Tories are becoming “ever more irrelevant”. He said: “At a time when the country and working people are facing real challenges, the Tories have no answers. They haven’t learnt their lesson from the last election.”
Keir Starmer has criticised Robert Jenrick’s comments complaining about “not seeing another white face” in parts of Birmingham, saying the shadow justice secretary was “hard to take seriously”. The prime minister suggested Jenrick’s comments were part of a stealth Conservative leadership campaign and said he did not believe he painted a true picture of the area of Handsworth, which Jenrick had described as “as close as I’ve come to a slum in this country”.
Ministers are preparing to raise the amount the NHS pays pharmaceutical firms for medicines by up to 25% after weeks of intensive talks with the Donald Trump administration and drugmakers. The government has drawn up fresh proposals to end a standoff with the industry over drug pricing, including changing the cost-effectiveness thresholds under which new medications are assessed for use on the NHS, according to industry sources.
Keir Starmer will order the home secretary to look at further curbs on protests including potential powers to take action against specific inflammatory chants at pro-Palestinian protests. Speaking to reporters en route to Mumbai, the prime minister said Labour was looking at going even further than the measures announced by Shabana Mahmood, which would look at the “cumulative impact” of repeat protests in certain locations.
Legal experts have questioned the explanation given by the Crown Prosecution Service for its sudden decision to drop charges against two Britons accused of spying for China amid a political row over who was responsible. The expert lawyers expressed surprise that the CPS thought it needed further assurance from the government that China was an enemy insofar as it posed “a current threat to national security” before the trial of Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry could go ahead.
The prospect of a Reform government at Westminster makes the question of Scottish independence more essential than ever, first minister John Swinney said as he launched a new policy paper on the matter today. These independence papers, kicked off by his predecessor but one Nicola Sturgeon, have become a running sore amongst opposition MSPs. The timing of today’s launch was notable, ahead of the SNP’s annual party conference in Aberdeen, which begins this Saturday and includes a debate on independence strategy and what a majority win for the SNP at next May’s Holyrood election would mean.
Abolishing stamp duty is “the single best reform any government could make to Britain’s tax system,” according to Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
The IEA’s executive director Tom Clougherty said:
Abolishing stamp duty is the single best reform any government could make to Britain’s tax system.
As things stand, this outdated and uneconomic levy is wreaking havoc on our already troubled housing market – by deterring sales and depressing house-building.
Indeed, research suggests that the wider social and economic harms are equivalent to three-quarters of the revenue raised – and that’s on top of the loss to the people actually paying the tax.
This means that stamp duty is many times more damaging, as a source of revenue, than broad-based taxes on income and consumption.
Any proposal to permanently cut or abolish it is therefore extremely welcome.
Updated
Responding to Kemi Badenoch’s conference speech, TUC general-secretary Paul Nowak said the Tories are becoming “ever more irrelevant”.
He said:
At a time when the country and working people are facing real challenges, the Tories have no answers. They haven’t learnt their lesson from the last election.
All they have to offer is more division, more austerity and more false promises. As the Conservatives drift to the extremes, they’re becoming ever more irrelevant.
Tory stamp duty plan 'to benefit the wealthiest the most'
Meanwhile, the Social Market Foundation (SMF) thinktank says that the Conservatives’ plans to abolish stamp duty “will benefit London and wealthiest homeowners the most”.
Theo Betram, director at the SMF, said:
Stamp duty is a brake on the housing market, stops people moving for work, prevents more downsizing. Scrapping it solves these issues, but the benefit will disproportionately go to homeowners and to those in the south east and London, who will gain the most.
The credibility test for the Conservatives is whether they can really make sustained savings of at least £12bn annually to fund the cut. Reforming council tax and introducing a property-based tax could make the stamp duty cut more credible, sustainable and fairer, helping those on lower incomes and around the country.
Together with the £5,000 rebate for first time buyers, this is a policy idea that will stimulate demand for homes but the supply side needs solving.
Updated
Kemi Badenoch’s understanding that the North Sea will play a critical role in the UK’s energy has been welcomed in a statement from the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC).
Tim Snowball, director of communications and public affairs at the BCC, said:
We welcome the Leader of the Opposition putting economic stability at the heart of her speech and acknowledging that businesses are key to driving growth.
Firms fully recognise apprenticeships as high-quality qualifications which help support important skills pipelines. While an extra funding pledge is welcome, it’s important the UK’s world-class university sector does not suffer as a result.
It was encouraging to hear Mrs Badenoch understand the critical role the North Sea will continue to play in our energy needs for some time to come. We’ve been clear, this must be supported by an end to the Energy Profits Levy.
Snowball did, however, warn against the Tory pledge to ditch the Climate Change Act. He added:
However, business will be alarmed over plans to scrap the Climate Change Act, which feel like a retrograde step for the long-term transition and the UK’s ability to attract investment.
As the Conservatives continue to develop policies, we look forward to engaging directly with the party to make sure the UK remains a competitive place to start, grow and invest in a business.
Updated
The prospect of a Reform government at Westminster makes the question of Scottish independence more essential than ever, first minister John Swinney said as he launched a new policy paper on the matter today.
These independence papers, kicked off by his predecessor but one Nicola Sturgeon, have become a running sore amongst opposition MSPs.
The timing of today’s launch was notable, ahead of the SNP’s annual party conference in Aberdeen, which begins this Saturday and includes a debate on independence strategy and what a majority win for the SNP at next May’s Holyrood election would mean.
While the SNP is topping the polls, there is still a significant gap between voters who support independence and those who say they will vote for the nationalists next May.
Today, Swinney said that the UK context made independence even more pressing:
Given the direction Westminster is intent on taking Scotland day by day, the need for people in Scotland to consider an alternative future is becoming more and more pressing.
The prospect of Nigel Farage becoming prime minister is a very real one, but even if Farage does not make it to No 10, he is driving the agenda at Westminster ever more to the right.
NHS could pay 25% more for medicines under plan to end row with drugmakers and Trump
Ministers are preparing to raise the amount the NHS pays pharmaceutical firms for medicines by up to 25% after weeks of intensive talks with the Donald Trump administration and drugmakers.
The government has drawn up fresh proposals to end a standoff with the industry over drug pricing, including changing the cost-effectiveness thresholds under which new medications are assessed for use on the NHS, according to industry sources.
The row has been cited as one of the reasons why big companies in the sector, including MSD (known as Merck in the US) and AstraZeneca, have cancelled or paused investments in the UK in recent weeks, while ramping up investments in the US.
The health department is in a standoff with the Treasury and No 10 on how to fund the deal, with Downing Street resisting pressure to commit new funds for medicines in next months’ budget.
The Liberal Democrats immediately attacked the move, first reported by Politico, asking how much it would cost and whether it would lead to cuts elsewhere in the NHS.
Green leader Zack Polanski says Badenoch's speech shows she's 'completely ignorant' of state of public services
Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, says Kemi Badenoch’s speech showed she is “completely ignorant” of the state of public services. In a statement, he said:
Kemi, whilst struggling for any last semblance of relevance, feels like she’s talking in a completely different time and place. She was speaking to the room, not listening to the nation. While she got rounds of applause from men in suits sitting in front of her, she still sounds painfully out of touch with those dressed and ready to work for this country.
You can’t preach about a ‘strong economy’ while protecting the wealth of billionaires and underfunding the nurses, teachers and carers who keep this country going. When she says “work is the best way out of poverty”, she shows her ignorance of the millions of Brits who are earning poverty wages, not enough to live on, let alone thrive.
She has shown herself to be completely ignorant of the crumbling frontline services that millions rely on. It’s as if she hasn’t spoken to the millions of people who are working full-time but are unable to pay their bills.
The Conservatives would instead have you believe it’s the borders that are causing people to be unable to pay their bills. This is a lie. And the truth is simple. Our borders are being used as a distraction.
If the government taxed the super-rich and the extreme wealth properly, we could rebuild our NHS, invest in green jobs and give everyone the security they deserve.
That is all from me for today. Tom Ambrose is taking over now.
Starmer says last Tory government's stance on China was reason why spy trial collapsed
Jessica Elgot is the Guardian’s deputy political editor.
Keir Starmer has again insisted the policy of the previous Tory government on China was the main factor in the collapse of a major Chinese espionage trial, despite criticism from the chief prosecutor that the Labour government would not give them enough evidence to prove China was a national security threat.
Speaking in Mumbai on a visit to a football ground, the prime minister said:
As you know, we were disappointed that the trial didn’t proceed, but the position is very clear that the trial would have had to take place on the basis of the situation as it was at the time under the previous Tory government.
So whatever their position was was the only position that could be presented at trial. So it wasn’t ,as it were, this government’s position. It was the Tory government before the position. Now that’s not a political to and fro, that’s a matter of law.
You have to prosecute people on the basis of the circumstances at the time of the alleged offence, and so all the focus needs to be on the policy of the Tory government in place then. That’s the only place that the evidence could be focused on.
Starmer, who has undertaken several business viss on Wednesday on the two-day trip to India, addressed more than 120 UK business leaders who have travelled with him. The PM visited a Bollywood studio to announce three new major Indian films will be made in UK studios in the coming years.
But several business chiefs on the trip have said that a key bar to further trade is restrictions on visas. Starmer denied that was the case. He said:
None of them have raised with me the question of visas. That wasn’t part of the FTA (free trade agreement).
What this is about is providing opportunities for them to take advantage of the FTA, and even before it’s fully enforced, the mood is very, very strong between India and the UK, and I’m really pleased. And they’re all bubbling with ideas. We’re doing deals. They’re doing deals every day.
Speaking at Cooperage Football Ground, near Mumbai’s Maidan Oval cricket ground, Starmer swerved whether he would raise Modi’s friendship with Vladimir Putin when the pair meet tomorrow.
Our defence of Ukraine is as solid as ever, and we’re a leading player in that. But I’m also really pleased the relationship with India is really strong, probably stronger now than it has been for some considerable time.
Ed Davey invites one nation Tories to join Lib Dems
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has responded to Kemi Badenoch’s speech by releasing an “open letter” to one nation Conservatives inviting them to join his party. He says:
The Conservative party under Kemi Badenoch is becoming more extreme and out of touch, chasing Nigel Farage instead of focusing on the issues that really matter to people. Meanwhile, Reform UK is growing in strength - threatening the tolerant, decent values that hold our communities together.
I know many one nation Conservatives are deeply concerned about the lurch to the hard right in our country and under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership. Her plans to tear up the Climate Change Act and withdraw from the ECHR show she is abandoning traditional British values of tolerance, decency and the rule of law.
So my message to the millions of One Nation Conservatives who feel let down by their party and reject the divisive politics of Badenoch and Farage is to come and join us. Help us save our country and defend the values we all hold dear.
The Labour party has issued this statement about Kemi Badenoch’s speech. It’s from Anna Turley, the Labour chair.
Kemi Badenoch is in complete denial. The public saw the Tories’ disastrous blueprint for Britain across their 14 years of failure in government - and the Conservatives still won’t apologise for the mess they left.
Labour has not commented directly on the stamp duty proposal.
How Tories say they would cut spending by £46.9bn a year, with new commitments worth £21.1bn a year
The Conservatives have also released a scorecard summing up how much they would save from the spending cuts they are proposing, and where they would spend the money. They say they would save £46.9bn a year, and they would spend £21.1bn extra a year. They say the rest is available for deficit reduction – “in keeping with Kemi Badenoch’s golden rule for the public finances, that at least half of all savings will be spent on deficit reduction and the rest on tax cuts and other priorities”.
How Badenoch's proposed stamp duty cut would work
Here is an extract from the briefing the Conservative party has put out about their proposal to abolish stamp duty.
Under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership, we want to support the public in taking the first step to building a family, building wealth, and building communities that last, which is why stamp duty land tax (SDLT) – paid when you buy a residential property – will be abolished entirely on primary residences.
This policy will apply irrespective of purchase price for primary residences. It will not apply to additional properties, properties purchased by companies, or by non-UK residents. It will not apply to Scotland or Wales where separate taxation exists.
Under Labour, stamp duty has been increased this year, including for first-time buyers, as the higher thresholds introduced by the Conservatives were discontinued. Currently buyers have to pay stamp duty on properties worth more than £125,000, but the SDLT levels, and thresholds for the higher bands, were set in 2014, and will still be in place in 2030, despite years of inflation.
This stealth tax – fiscal drag – is sucking more and more people into paying the tax, and pushing more people into paying at the higher rates.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned about the damaging impacts of stamp duty, saying that: “in a crowded field, SDLT has a claim to be the most economically damaging tax in the UK. It makes both housing and labour markets less efficient, acting as a drag on growth. It should be reduced or – even better – abolished, and certainly not increased”.
Badenoch's speech - snap verdict
Tories love a tax cut, and today Kemi Badenoch gave her audience exactly what they wanted. Stamp duty was always unpopular (not just with Conservatives – economists like the ones at the IFS think it’s a very bad tax too) and she announced that a Conservative government would abolish it. The Tories says abolishing stamp duty on primary residences would cost £4.5bn, but they say they are setting aside £9bn for this because they expect the revenue from stamp duty to go up before 2029-30.
This came at the end of a speech that was solid, clear, probably overly negative, but which at least set out a clear, and quite comprehensive account of what a Badenoch government might do.
The most obvious problem is that, at this stage of the electoral cycle, opposition policy pledges are largely fantasy, and tax promises are particularly implausible. Badenoch unveiled her announcement right at the end of her speech, like a chancellor delivering the budget, and elsewhere in her speech (for example, when she declared “I am reversing this” in relation to net zero policies), she sounded like a politcian with a deluded view of the power she actually has. Still, opposition parties have to communicate to the public what they stand for and policy announcements – even Potemkin ones – can perform this function. So it is not wholly ridiculous.
And it capped a speech that was a light on culture war grievance (Badenoch’s obsession, until quite recently) and largely focused on the economy. She is right to conclude that Labour is vulnerable on the economy. Only three years after Liz Truss, the Tories are actually ahead of Labour in polling in economic competence and this was a speech designed to build on that.
When she addressed the Tory conference last year, as a leadership contender, Badenoch said that what Britain needed was “the sort of project not attempted since the days of Keith Joseph in the 1970s, a comprehensive plan to reprogramme the British state, to reboot the British economy, a new blueprint for the great machine of our country”. One year on, this has not quite materialised. What she was announcing was certainly a departure from the past, but it was not the radicalism she was promising in 2024. Abolishing stamp duty has been on the Tory low tax wishlist for years. Leaving the ECHR is transformational, but in that Badenoch was only really catching up with what Robert Jenrick was proposing a year ago.
There was more evidence of the Jenrick leadership threat (see 9.19am) in the substance of the speech. Having told people a year ago that she did not want to rush into a programme for government, she has now produced more or less exactly that. It felt like a job protection mechanism as much as a manifesto.
Voters are paying zilch attention to the Tories at the moment, and it is quite possible that the stamp duty announcement – even with lift-off from the rightwing papers and GB News – will swiftly be forgotten. If it isn’t, though, there is another risk for Badenoch. The Tories are proposing to fund this with colossal cuts worth £47bn, including welfare cuts worth £23bn. No party has ever made welfare cuts on that scale popular and, while the media mostly ignored them when Mel Stride set them out on Monday (because no one in the media thinks the Tories will be in power after the election), now the Labour attack unit has an incentive to explain what impact they would have. Badenoch has given her a reason to do that.
Still, Badenoch has got through the week. She might not be engaging the electorate, but Conservative party members will be moderately heartened by her performance.
There was another line in her speech last year that has not stood the test of time. Talking about her father, she said: “He also taught me responsibility. He would say, 80% of what happens to you is down to you.” But, if Badenoch is floundering as an opposition leader, it is not 80% down to her. It is 80% because she inherited a party that governed badly for 14 years and is now heartily disliked. Her speech today was fine, in Tory terms, but it still quite likely that next year someone else will be on delivering it.
Badenoch is now winding up. Here is the peroration.
I stand for a government that takes less of your money and doesn’t interfere in your life, where the state does less but does it better, where those who create wealth are welcomed with open arms, not driven from our shores, where reward matches effort, where Britain stands tall in the world.
I stand for an economy where profit is not a dirty word, where enterprise is supported not crushed.
I stand for a country where what you put in determines what you get out, where excellence is celebrated.
I stand for a country where actions have consequences, where we talk about responsibilities as well as rights, where crime is punished and justice is served, where the welfare of victims outweighs the welfare of criminals.
I stand for a society where free speech trumps hurt feelings, where everyone knows what a woman is, where people are judged by the content of their character, not the colour of their skin, whether vulnerable or supported, but where freeloaders are told where to get off.
Conference, I stand for stronger borders and a stronger economy so that the young can fulfil their potential, the old can live out their years in dignity, and everyone can achieve their dreams, to own a home, run a business, raise a family.
This is the Britain I stand for.
If it is the Britain you stand for, then stand with me, and let’s build it together.
Badenoch says this move would “unlock a fairer and more aspirational society”.
People of all ages will benefit, she says.
And she says, every time people move, that generates other economic activity.
She says she can promise this while not breaking her golden rule.
According to this BBC explainer, the government raised £11.6bn from stamp duty in 2023-24.
Badenoch says next Tory government will abolish stamp duty
Badenoch says, because of all the savings she has promised, she can afford one more announcement.
As the Conservative party, we know who our people are. They are people who work hard, they are the people who plauy hard, they are the people who understand the importance of putting down roots.
They are the people who make sacrifices today for a better life.
They are also people who want to own their own home, she says.
But there is a barrier – the tax you have to pay – stamp duty, she says.
Stamp duty is a bad tax, she says, an un-conservative tax.
We must free up our housing market, because a society where no one can afford to buy, or move is a society where social mobility is dead.
Badenoch says she looked at moving the thresholds. But decided against that.
Instead, the next Conservative government will abolish stamp duty, she says.
This gets a long round of applause.
Badenoch is now running through a list of Conserative policies.
Kiran Stacey explained the key ones here.
Badenoch says, by getting rid of net zero targets, the Conservatives could cut energy bills.
We will cut bills for families, slash costs for businesses and the madness that you have to tear out your boiler or disconnect your gas hob.
We are going to bring industry and jobs back home.
This is real action, conference, not slogans.
Badenoch confirms the plan to help high streets with a business rates cut.
And now she is on energy.
Countries with cheap energy grow faster. Countries with expensive energy decline.
Right now, we pay four times what industry in the US does for electricity. The result we are de-industrialising.
It’s not just manufacturing that is disappearing, not just steel, not just chemicals, not just ceramics, not just oil and gas. We are losing our farming industry. We are losing our fishing industry.
These are the foundations of a strong economy, and they are going all because we chose a slogan of net zero over a serious strategy for a stronger economy and a better environment.
So I am saying enough. I am reversing this.
And Badenoch confirms the “golden rule” annoucement.
Under our golden rule, half of those savings [from the proposed £47bn Tory cuts] will go towards reducing Labour’s deficit.
With the rest, we are going to unleash our economy.
That’s the Conservative way, responsibility today, opportunity tomorrow.
Badenoch says Tories would ban doctors from going on strike
Badenoch says the Tories would ban doctors from going on strike.
And she says they would reverse the Labour’s schools bill.
In education, Labour have bent over to the teaching unions and are removing our academy freedoms, which have been so successful.
We will reverse this act as educational vandalism, and we will make sure that brilliant schools and teachers have the freedom to do what they do best, teach.
Badenoch turns to the police.
Right now, our police are spending 800,000 hours every single year waiting with mental health patients, 800,000 hours. That’s the equivalent of 400 police officers doing nothing else all year except waiting around.
She says the Tories will put an end to that, freeing officers from “pointless paperwork”.
We will put them back on our streets. We will send them after the shoplifters, making life a misery for high streets, and we will triple stop and search, because the more people we stop, the more people we search, the more knives we take off the streets.
Badenoch confirms that the Tories would cut the size of the civil service.
Since Brexit and Covid, the size of the civil service has swollen by over a threat a third. There are now more than half a million civil servants.
And have you noticed? Is government working a third better for you? I don’t think so.
Badenoch says the increase in the number of people on sickness benefits is “national tragedy”.
Five thousand new people are signing on each and every single day. Many are young people who are losing the chance to make something of themselves, never knowing what it’s like to pay their own way.
This isn’t just about saving money, important though that is. It’s far more than that. It is driven by our deep conservative conviction that work is a good in itself.
Badenoch confirms Tories would cut welfare spending
Badenoch turns to welfare.
Right now, there are six and a half million working age adults claiming benefits instead of working.
You heard me right – six and a half million.
That is the entire population of Cardiff and Belfast and Glasgow and Manchester combined being paid to sit at home all day.
We cannot expect people to get up and go to work and pay more and more in taxes to subsidise millions of others not to work …
We have done the hard work, and we have a plan to cut welfare spending.
First, British benefits for British citizens. It is common sense that you should not draw out of a system that you haven’t paid into.
Second, we will restrict benefits to those with the more severe mental health conditions, not anxiety or mild depression. Yes, these challenges are real and people should get support, but they cannot be treated as a reason for a lifetime of work.
And third, we will restrict Motability vehicles to people with serious disabilities. Those cars are not for people with ADHD.
Badenoch says he has a plan for change.
First, the Tories will take the UK out of the European convention on human rights.
She says: “This is a plan, not a slogan.”
Badenoch quotes Margaret Thatcher’s ratchet view of socialism.
When Margaret Thatcher was leader of the opposition, she said this: “Every Labour government is prepared to reverse every Tory measure, while Conservative governments accept nearly all socialist measures, the end result is only too plain.”
She was right to fix our country.
Badenoch says under her the Tories will reverse Labour measures, including VAT on school fees, the inheritance tax for farms, and the employment rights bill.
Badenoch accuses Reform UK, Lib Dems and Corbyn of 'magic money tree' politics
Badenoch attacks other ministers, like Shabana Mahmood and Rachel Reeves, and Labour’s record on the economy.
And she moves on to other parties.
Let’s look at what’s on offer out there for all those disappointed by Labour.
Reform, promising free beer tomorrow.
Jeremy Corbyn, promising free jam.
Lib Dems, promising free lentils.
All of them promising more spending, blowing up the public finances.
Whether it’s Starmer, Farage, Corbyn or Davey, all these men are shaking the same magic money tree, following the same failed playbook, no plan for growth, no honesty about the scale of the challenges, and it always leads to the same result, more government, more taxes, more debt.
It is irresponsible, it’s cynical, and it’s why Britain needs Conservatives back in charge.
Badenoch claims Labour 'deliberately collapsed' spy trial because it wants to 'suck up to Beijing'
Badenoch turns to the collapse of the Chinese spying trial.
Today we learn that Labour deliberately collapsed the trial of two men accused of spying on MPs for China because the prime minister wants to suck up to Beijing. This is squalid.
Badenoch is now attacking Labour.
What have labour given us? An anti-corruption minister under investigation for corruption, a homelessness minister who made her own tenants homeless, a housing secretary sacked for dodging housing taxes. You couldn’t make this stuff up.
We had a transport secretary fired for stealing a phone, and our ambassador in Washington thrown out in disgrace.
There is an old joke that a diplomat is someone sent abroad to lie for their country. Well, at least in Peter Mandelson, they had a man of experience.
She says Starmer is “utterly useless” and “weak”.
People don’t know what Keir Starmer stands for. And Starmer does not know himself.
Badenoch says the Tories have been “bold enough to do what is needed”.
And she cites Brexit as an example.
And, of course, we were brave enough to take Britain out of the European Union, honouring the biggest democratic mandate in our history.
Badenoch says Labour claims the 14 years of the last government were all bad. But that is wrong, she says.
Between 2010 and 2020 we slashed the deficit, we lifted millions of people out of tax and got millions into work.
We sent English schools soaring up the international league tables.
We led the coalition against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine .
But the party did not always fight hard enough for what it believed in, she says.
We need to remember who we are fighting for. We are fighting for people who work hard and do the right thing.
We are fighting for people who ask, why do sickness benefits pay more than the minimum wage?
We are fighting for small business owners, people who take risks and get things done.
We are fighting for the victims of crime. They want to know that we are on their side, that criminals will face the full force of the law.
We are fighting for the farmers putting food on our tables.
These are our people conference. They are the backbone of our country. We fought for them before, and we will fight for them again.
Badenoch says immigration making public services worse
Badenoch says immigration is making public services worse.
We are accepting hundreds of thouands of people, some with many dependents, some with no skills at all.
This broken immigration model is heaping pressure on our public sector, a public sector which already, every year, demands more and more and more of our money, yet services don’t get better, they get worse.
Everyone in this room knows what I’m talking about. We have all felt it.
We used to ring up our GP and get an appointment the same day. Now, now we have to wait on the phone to see if we’re one of the lucky ones.
We have potholes that have been around for so long, people are holding birthday parties for them.
Badenoch says Britain 'stagnating, while world around us moves on'
Badenoch says:
We are the only party that has the vision, the courage and the competence to tear up a broken political model, deliver a new blueprint for our country, and together take Britain into an era of prosperity and security.
She says opportunity was there for the people born into the country she was born into. (She was born in London in 1980.)
But now things are different, she says.
Britain is stagnating while the world around us moves on.
We are competing with restless and ambitious countries around the world.
We are competing with a billion people in India striving to become middle class.
We are competing with economic success stories like Poland.
Fifteen years ago, Polish workers came here to find opportunity. Now, Poland is growing twice as fast as we are.
While Britain was redefining what a woman is, China was building five nuclear reactors.
Badenoch says the Tory party is her family – literally.
She married the deputy chair of her local association.
She thanks her husband, Hamish.
Updated
Badenoch says Tories are 'only party that can meet test of our genertion'
Badenoch says she joined the party 20 years ago.
She celebrated all the wins, and felt the pain of ever defeat.
The Tories are “the only party that can meet the test of our generation”, she says.
Badenoch claims her MPs and peers “have more collective wisdom than the rest of parliament put together”.
And she name checks mayors too.
Badenoch thanks the members for standing by the only party that can meet the test of this generation.
Everything relies on being able to deliver a stronger economy and stronger borders, she says.
She says a weak economy and weak borders mean steady decline.
I reject that fate.
The Tories can save Britain from that fate, because they are a strong team.
She name checks her shadow cabinet members.
Updated
And she is getting a long standing ovation.
(Not always a good sign for a Tory leader under threat.)
Badenoch is on stage. She has four union flags lined up behind her.
Kemi Badenoch is about to speak.
A video is being showed first, with some of the moments from her first year as leader.
At the Tory conference they have just played the national anthem.
GB News will be pleased.
Devolution 'failing' people in Scotland and Wales, senior Tory claims
Devolution isn’t working, a senior member of Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet has said.
Alex Burghart, the shadow Cabinet Office minister and shadow Northern Ireland secretary, made the declaration in the panel discussion at conference this morning.
He implied that the party would be open to some sort of rethink, although he did not elaborate on what he meant. But this is another example of where the party’s thinking is moving away from where it was in the David Cameron era (see 8.11am), when devolution was accepted as a settled constiutional fact.
In response to a question about what Margaret Thatcher would have thought of devolution, Burghart said she would have started with the facts. He went on:
And the facts are these: [it’s] a quarter of a century after the Blairite settlement in Wales and Scotland, and none of the things that the people of Wales and Scotland were promised would happen have happened.
The economy in these areas has not fulfilled its enormous potential. The state of health in Wales is shocking. The state of education in Scotland is unacceptable, and devolution is palpably failing people in those areas. And we have to start with those facts.
Now, where that conversation takes us is a very interesting direction, but we have to be the party that’s prepared to stand up and say what’s actually in the minds of people in Wales and Scotland, that this system isn’t working as it was promised in 1998.
Mims Davies, the shadow Welsh secretary, also said devolution had failed. She told the conference:
Margaret Thatcher … was the woman who said that we need to roll back the frontiers of the state.
What Tony Blair and the devolution settlement has done is devolved. We have forgotten about outcomes. And what we need to do is roll back the frontiers of those devolved areas.
She said the Welsh government was mismanaging the NHS in Wales, but the Labour government at Westminster would not intervene.
In his contribution, Andrew Bowie, the shadow Scottish secretary, said he would not argue that devolution per se had failed. But he said the people of Scotland had been let down because every devolved government had had a “socialist blob mindset”.
Gary Neville's comment about flag waving 'deeply offensive', says shadow Scottish secretary Andrew Bowie
At the Tory conference Mims Davies, the shadow Welsh secretary, Andrew Bowie, the shadow Scottish secretary, and Alex Burghart, the shadow Northern Ireland secretary are speaking on a panel about governance.
On flag waving, Bowie has just said that what Gary Neville said about flag waving was “deeply offensive”.
And Burghart said he went to Northern Ireland during marching season and witnesses a “huge tide of flag waving”. Burhart was very positive about what he saw. People were out with their families, and they were celebrating the flag in a warm, spirited way, he said.
Richard Adams is the Guardian’s education editor.
Kemi Badenoch’s announcement today that a Conservative government would cut university places based on graduate earnings, and put the savings into apprenticeships (see 8.11am), is a carbon copy of the same policy announced by the last Conservative government in 2024.
Back in May 2024 it was the then education secretary Gillian Keegan who promised that so-called “mickey mouse” courses would be closed down and the notional savings spent on 100,000 apprenticeships. That was less than two months before the general election in July, and Keegan’s plan failed to even make it into the Conservative election manifesto.
Phillipson says Powell win would risk 'destabilising' Labour as voting starts in deputy leadership election
Voting in the Labour deputy leadership election opens today. Lucy Powell, the former Commons leader, is seen as the favourite and, as Jessica Elgot reports, Powell told supporters yesterday that, if she is elected, she will use the post to argue for changes in the way the government is operating. “We can’t sugarcoat the fact that things aren’t going well,” she said.
Powell is no longer a government minister and, if she is elected deputy leader, she will do the job from the backbenches. In an interview on Newsnight last night, Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary standing against Powell, said a Powell victory would be “destabilising” for the party. She said:
[Electing Powell] risks destabilising the party … we best achieve what we need to do together when we have those fierce conversations, including disagreements, behind closed doors.
When it was put to her that Powell has said that she won’t be “sniping from the sidelines” if she wins, Phillipson said that, given Powell would not be in government, there was a “real risk” that she would end up having arguments with the Keir Starmer and his ministers in public. She said:
Members need to understand that there’s a potential challenge around all of that – that if you’re not inside when the big decisions are being made, you’re not at that table, you’re not in those conversations.
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Rachel Reeves given extra £3bn for budget after VAT error fixed
Mistakes in recent public finances data mean government borrowing has been overstated by a cumulative £3bn, the Office for National Statistics has announced. As Heather Stewart reports, in a fillip that gives Rachel Reeves a little bit more wriggle room in her November budget, the ONS said its estimates of public borrowing had been out by £200m-£500m a month since January.
People who back leaving ECHR know less about what it actually does than those in favour of staying, poll suggests
Here is more from the YouGov polling report showing that that people in favour of leaving the ECHR know less about what it actually does than those in favour of staying in. In his YouGov write-up, Matthew Smith says:
There is virtually no difference in proclaimed familiarity with the EHCR between those who want to remain members and those who want to withdraw, while current Labour voters are more likely than others to claim knowledge and Tory voters somewhat less likely.
When tested on their actual knowledge, the public are most likely to correctly identify that the right not to be tortured (59%) and the right to a fair trial (56%) are covered by the ECHR, although these are the only two of the eight true or false questions that most Britons got right.
Just 38% know freedom of speech is an area covered by the ECHR, and only 37% know that a right to free healthcare, and 22% the right to migrate, are not.
Only 24% correctly identified that the ECHR is not an EU body, while a similar number (26%) are right that countries have leeway in the interpretation/implementation of ECHR provisions. Just 15% correctly say that the European Court of Human Rights cannot overrule or annul national laws (they can only find them to be in violation and require the state to remedy the situation).
The results show that those Britons who want to remain in the ECHR are generally more likely to answer this battery of questions correctly – although in most cases fewer than half on both sides of the argument gave the correct answer.
Rafael Behr’s take on the Conservative party conference is well worth reading. Here is his conclusion.
Badenoch has spent a year immersed in pseudo-intellectual laundering of radical nationalist positions, all the while imagining she was heading to some other, more sophisticated destination. She really thought she was rehabilitating the Tories, but she has reduced them to a low-wattage thinktank attached to a warehouse storing future parliamentary candidates for Farage.
For the remnant of moderate centre-right Conservatives hoping for some pathway back to credibility, Badenoch’s leadership has been the worst of all worlds. Her claim to be thoughtful was an affectation, squandering time when real thought might have been applied to the hard questions she has avoided. She discredited the idiom of serious Conservatism by appropriating it for the shallowest agenda. She understood the need for a boundary between traditional Toryism and populist demagoguery but lacked the clarity of thought, strategic acumen and political courage to enforce one. She has accelerated the dissolution of her party’s identity by asserting it in terms that no casual voter will understand. In the post-Conservative climate of British politics, they won’t even notice.
And here is the full article.
Britons back staying in ECHR by 46% to 29%, poll suggests
The most important policy announcement of the week was Kemi Badenoch’s declaration that the Tories are now committed to taking the UK out of the European convention on human rights. Even though polling suggests that the party has very little chance of winning the next election, this means both major rightwing parties in the UK (Reform UK and the Conservative party) are now firmly behind ECHR. And, with Badenoch declaring that future election candidates will have to support the policy, this position is likely to be locked in for some time to come.
But the voters as a whole are not in favour, according to new polling from YouGov. In his write-up for YouGov, Matthew Smith says:
A new YouGov survey shows that the public are generally opposed to leaving the ECHR, with 46% saying we should remain a member compared to 29% saying we should withdraw from it – the remaining 24% are unsure.
While seven in ten of those who currently intend to vote for Reform UK back withdrawal (72%), this falls to a much lower 44% of those who back the Conservatives, although this is still the plurality preference.
By contrast, 82% of current Labour voters want to remain within the Convention, as do 76% of Lib Dems and 85% of Greens.
The polling also shows that, while more than half of Britons say they know not very much or nothing about the ECHR, the people in favour of leaving are more likely to be ignorant about the convention than those in favour of staying. Smith says:
Those Britons who want to remain in the ECHR are generally more likely to answer this battery of questions [about what the ECHR says] correctly – although in most cases fewer than half on both sides of the argument gave the correct answer.
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Tory chair Kevin Hollinrake dismisses report saying Badenoch's shadow ministers plotting to force her out
Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative party chair, has dismissed reports suggesting Kemi Badenoch will be replaced within a year.
Asked if Badenoch would be addressing the Tory conference as party leader next autumn, he replied: “Absolutely, yes.”
In an interview on the Today programme Emma Barnett asked how he could say that in the light of reports, like one in today’s Times saying, that that shadow ministers are already plotting a leadership challenge.
The Times story says the shadow cabinet is split between those who favour a leadership challenge in November, when Badenoch will have been leader for a year, meaning the rule allowing MPs to demand a confidence vote kicks in, and others who want to wait until next year’s elections.
But even those willing to give Badenoch more time mostly do not believe she will survive bad results in those elections, the Times suggests.
The Times story, based on reporting in the Times’ new political podcast, The State of It, says Robert Jenrick is one of those willing to wait. It says:
Jenrick is said to be biding his time, believing that his best chance to take over will come if the Tories lose a swathe of council seats to Reform next year.
One ally said that he was not “mad enough to do a Burnham” — a reference to Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester who was highly critical of Sir Keir Starmer — and would remain outwardly loyal to Badenoch until after May …
Another ally of Jenrick said that “he has the numbers” — a reference to the 36 letters needed to precipitate a contest. “The best result here for Kemi and for Rob if things don’t improve is a bloodless coup,” one shadow minister said. “The last thing we need is more Tory psychodrama.”
Hollinrake said he wanted the party’s poll ratings to improve. Asked how long Badenoch had to turn things around, he replied:
As far as I’m concerned, she’s all the time she needs.
I don’t think it’ll take years to change the poll ratings. I think over the coming weeks and months that will happen.
Kemi Badenoch has got the backbone to do what needs to be done with this country. She’s got the strength of character. She says what she means, and means what she says – in total contrast to what you’ve seen from Keir Starmer who’s a very weak leader with no backbone.
He also said that in the last parliament the party changed leader too often.
I think that was very unpopular the public. It looks like we were very internalised in terms of our thinking, very introspective. I think that’s the wrong thing.
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Labour and Lib Dems dismiss Badenoch's claim that Tories can be trusted on economy
‘Not credible’ is also the thrust of the Labour and Liberal Democrat reponses to Kemi Badenoch’s proposed economic “golden rule” – that at least half of all money a Tory government saves through cuts would be used for deficit reduction. (Gordon Brown also had a “golden rule”, but his was different.) Donna Ferguson has details of the Badenoch proposal here.
A Labour spokesperson said:
Kemi Badenoch has some brass neck. It’s astounding that her latest speech still contains no apology for the Conservatives crashing the economy …
The Tories’ fantasy public spending ‘savings’ are done on the back of the same fag packet Nigel Farage has been writing on.
And a Liberal Democrat spokesperson said:
The idea that the public would now trust the Conservative party with the economy is laughable. From almost crashing our economy to leaving public services on their knees, the Conservatives have shown their economics is almost as bad as their spelling.
Labour says Badenoch's further education promises worthless because apprenticeship starts 'collapsed' under Tories
The Conservatives are proposing to cut the number of students going to university so that they can save £3bn a year which they can spend on apprenticeships. This would double the apprenticeships budget.
In her speech, Kemi Badenoch will says she knows from personal experience the value of apprenticeships. She will say:
Nearly one in three graduates see no economic return, and every year taxpayers are writing off over £7bn in unpaid student loans.
Wasted money, wasted talent.
A rigged system propping up low-quality courses, while people can’t get high-quality apprenticeships that lead to real jobs.
This is personal for me.
A lot of people know I did two degrees.
One in engineering. One in law.
But while I can’t remember how to do parallel integration.
I can remember how to fix a broken computer.
Which I learnt on my apprenticeship.
We need more apprenticeships.
I was working with adults.
I was paying my own way.
And it gave me self confidence in a way my university degrees never did.
And unlike my subsequent university degree, I wasn’t still paying off my debts in my early 30s.
Spending on apprenticeships is popular with voters. That is one reason why Keir Starmer also used his party conference speech to announce a tilt in higher and further education policy, giving apprenticeships more priority.
Labour says the Tories have no credibility on this topic. This is what the party said about the Badenoch plan briefed overnight. A Labour spokesperson said:
Kemi Badenoch’s pledge isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. Under the Tories, apprenticeship starts and completions collapsed, and instead of supporting universities, they waged divisive culture wars - treating students as political pawns rather than investing in education for public good.
This Labour government has changed course. We’ve stabilised university finances and opened up access to apprenticeships for thousands more young people, with confirmed increases in starts over the past year.
Starmer says Jenrick is ‘hard to take seriously’ after Birmingham comments
Keir Starmer is on a visit to India. Speaking to reporters on the flight to Mumbai, he had time to take a swipe at Robert Jenrick.
Here are some pictures from the Starmer trip.
Kemi Badenoch criticised for ‘nonsensical’ plan to cut student numbers by 100,000
Good morning. Kemi Badenoch is giving her first main speech to a Conservative party conference as leader. There are many people who assume it will be her last.
(She did speak on Sunday, on her plan to leave the European convention on human rights [ECHR], but the Wednesday speech closing conference is always the biggie.)
The Tories face an existential challenge from Reform UK. While Badenoch has tried to differentiate the party from Reform UK, mainly be stressing her commitment to fiscal responsibility and cutting public spending, her main rival, Robert Jenrick, seems to be adopting the opposite approach – essentially adopting Nigel Farage’s outlook wholesale.
In her speech today Badenoch will announce a new economic “golden rule” that she will present as evidence that a Conservative government would bring down government borrowing. It is a policy that the Tories might have embraced in the era of David Cameron and George Osborne. But what is much more interesting is how Badenoch is, in many areas, trampling all over Cameron-era Conservatism. We’ve seen this in the decision to proposing leaving the ECHR, repealing the Climate Change Act (essentially Cameron legislation, passed by Gordon Brown, as Michael Heseltine pointed out yesterday) and slashing aid spending to its lowest level on record.
And in her speech today Badenoch will bury another Cameron policy. His government lifted the cap on the number of students allowed to go to unversity, which opened up higher education to more young people and led to university expansion. Today Badenoch will propose bringing it back, cutting the number of people going to university by around 100,000 a year.
In a news release explaining why, the Conservative party says:
While many young people still benefit from university, too many are being pushed towards a degree as the only route to success, even as evidence has mounted that for too many it leads to poor job prospects and high debt …
Analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies finds that “total returns [on going to university] will be negative for around 30% of both men and women”. Many graduates earn so little they never repay fully their student loans, leaving the taxpayer to cover over £7bn in unpaid debt every year in England alone …
We will protect the interests of taxpayers and students by introducing caps on funded courses that consistently lead to poor graduate outcomes. We will introduce controls on student numbers in specific subject groups, so the taxpayer is not left subsidising courses which are leading to low graduate earnings or limited career prospects …
Number controls would apply in every subject group, such as creative arts, languages or sports science, and would be progressively reduced in subject groups where we see the greatest losses for taxpayers and students. This would reduce the number of annual university places by approximately 100,000 and save over £3bn in loan repayment losses that are currently written off each year as public spending.
The Tories say they would use the savings to double apprenticeship funding.
The University and College Union has described this as “economically illiterate”. In a statement, Jo Grady, the UCU general secretary, said:
This is an economically illiterate policy; no country has ever grown by slashing university places. Nonsensical ideas such as this come as no surprise from the party that crashed the economy, and fortunately, have no hope of being enacted, as the Tories will not be winning an election anytime soon.
The way to deal with the student debt burden is through a return to public funding, this could be paid for with a wealth tax, so those who benefit the most from getting a degree contribute more.
Here is the timetable of events at the Conservative conference.
10am: Matt Vickers, deputy chair of the party, hosts a panel on the 2026 local elections.
10.30am: Mims Davies, the shadow Welsh secretary, Andrew Bowie, the shadow Scottish secretary, and Alex Burghart, the shadow Northern Ireland secretary speak on a panel about the governance of the UK.
11.15am: Kemi Badenoch delivers her speech.
Also today, Keir Starmer is on a visit in India. And this morning John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, is holding a press conference to mark the publication of a paper about independence.
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