Badenoch Opens Tory Conference With Welfare, Childcare and Prisons Pledges
Kemi Badenoch opened the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham on 4 October with announcements on welfare, childcare and prisons, alongside a 100-page statement of principles called The Right Way. BBC
She arrived in the city to cheers from supporters before the formal events began. She then gave a long interview to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg. She said the conference would be a return to core Conservative principles. A day earlier, she had rejected much of what the Conservatives did in government between 2010 and 2024.
In that interview, Ms Badenoch said she was a "classic old school Conservative" and a "no-nonsense mum".
On the economy, The Right Way says a future Conservative government would follow one central rule: "business, not government, creates growth". Ms Badenoch proposed tax cuts, less red tape, the rules and paperwork for business, and cutting the civil service, the staff who run government departments, to its size before the pandemic. She said that mix was the way to get growth.
On welfare, she told Kuenssberg that support should be a "safety net, not a lifestyle".
On childcare, the party said it would end the "cliff edge" where parents earning more than £100,000 lose the free-hours entitlement. Ms Badenoch said the limit stops people "working harder". She said the Conservatives were the "common sense party" when she defended extending free childcare to high earners. The Independent
On law and order, the party said it would build 50,000 new prison places. It said it would pay for them by cutting the overseas aid budget, money spent on help abroad, to £1bn a year.
Asked about rivals, Ms Badenoch called Reform UK leader Nigel Farage a "grumpy grandpa" in the same BBC interview. The remark was brief.
The broader context here is that Ms Badenoch is trying to do three jobs at once. The 100-page document, the rejection of the 2010 to 2024 record and the single rule on growth give activists, MPs and candidates a text to support or to pick apart. It will be read less for style than for what it allows or blocks on tax, business rules and the size of the state. Her direct language leaves little room for doubt about how she wants to sound in the hall. The welfare line is likely to come up often in fringe meetings, the side events at conference, and in broadcast interviews. It shows where she wants the debate on spending and conditions to sit. The prisons detail will shape questions for the whips, the MPs who enforce party discipline, and Treasury spokespeople. Each pledge is aimed at a different part of the coalition she needs to hold, from higher-earning suburban families who worry about losing money when pay rises, to members who want tight control of spending and borders. Extending childcare sits next to a tougher message on welfare and a smaller civil service, while building prisons is linked to spending less abroad.
In my view, the week in Birmingham will test two questions above all. The first is money. Tax cuts, more childcare and a large prison building plan all cost money, and the saving on aid is doing a lot of work in the sums so far. The second is how the party stands apart. By rejecting its own recent record and talking about old-school Conservatism, common sense and a no-nonsense tone, Ms Badenoch sets up a contrast with Labour ministers and with Reform. Whether people in the hall, and then Conservative MPs, accept that as a workable programme is the story to watch.
