UK politics live: Badenoch says UK not as rich as it thinks and country refuses to live within its means
Badenoch says Britons not as rich as they think and refusing ‘to live within our means’
Badenoch accuses Labour of making mistakes, and says the last Conservative government made mistakes too, using the passages briefed in advance. See 9.36am and 11.45am.
Badenoch goes on to say the UK is not as rich as it thinks.
If we are going to turn our country around, we’re going to have to say some things that aren’t easy to hear.
Let’s start with our problems. We think we are rich, but we are living off the inheritance that previous generations left behind, a complacency that Britain will always be wealthy, and a refusal to live within our means.
We owe it to that next generation to leave an inheritance for them and not mortgage their future to make our lives more comfortable, and that will demand the kind of tough, soul-searching conversations we’re not having right now.
Energy supply is vulnerable, more vulnerable than ever, and our energy is far, far too expensive when it should be secure, cheap, plentiful.
Demography is destiny. People are having fewer children. Our society is getting older. We are living longer and needing more support towards the end of our lives. Look at productivity. A shrinking group of people are working to support an ever growing number of those who are unable or unwilling to work.
The information age means it is easier than ever for rogue governments to destabilise us and for rogue companies and countries to steal our know how.
And – no ifs, no buts – we simply cannot take all the millions of people who want to come here from elsewhere. Our country is our home. It is not a hotel. If people arriving don’t want to integrate into British culture, they shouldn’t be here.
Key events
Badenoch plays down need for apologising over Tories’ record, saying getting Labour out more important
Q: [From Katie Balls from the Spectator] Is there anything you want to apologise to voters for on behalf of Tory party? And do you think Donald Trump’s election will lead to a ‘“vibe shift”?
On apologising, Badenoch said:
When we had a speech last month about immigration – and that’s one of the things where I came out upfront and said we acknowledge that we made mistakes – I was knocking on a door recently, and I was apologising to the person at the doorstep, and said, I’m not interested in your apology, I want you to get these people out, and that’s what I’m going to be focused on.
On vibes, Badenoch said:
I think that things have been in a state of flux for at least 10 years. There’s been a vibe shift almost every 18 months, and we’re seeing the latest iteration. We are going to have to be flexible as a party.
And that was it.
Badenoch took a lot of questions, but none from leftwing news organisations.
Badenoch says public ‘aren’t interested in litigating membership numbers’, drawing line under row with Reform UK
Q: Do you think the last Conservative government should have held an inquiry into grooming gangs? And do you still stand by your claim Reform UK membership numbers are wrong?
On the inquiry, Badenoch says she does support a national inquiry into grooming gangs. That was not her view at the time, but it is her view now, because of what has happened since.
On the row about the Reform UK membership figures (she claimed Reform were making up the figures – Reform produced evidence that seemed to disprove this), Badenoch says:
I stand by between I made at the time. I think if you read [the tweet] very carefully, you’ll see I was very specific.
But I don’t think the public are interested in litigating membership numbers. They want to know what we are going to do for them, and that is what my speech today is about.
In her tweet, Badenoch claims the Reform UK membership numbers being shown on a ticker were fake, but also that Reform were wrong to claim they had more members than the Tories because Reform were using the last published figure for Tory members – when the most recent figure has not been disclosed.
Her answer today suggests she wants to draw a line under the affair.
Q: [From Sam Coates from Sky News] This all sounds depressing. Doesn’t Nigel Farage have an advantage because he is more cheerful?
Badenoch says she has just taken over. She wants to offer hope and optimism. She says Farage has been around for 20 years. “Let’s see where we are in a few months, in a few years,” she says.
Q: What do you think of the Sun’s story about the BBC promoting a rapper who committed murder? What do you think of the BBC licence fee?
Badenoch says she pays her licence fee. That is all she will say on that.
Referring to the Sun story, she says she was shocked by that.
She says the public sector should support free speech. But that does not mean it always has to pay for it.
Q; [From Kate McCann from Times Radio] You accuse Keir Starmer of legalism, not leadership. Your speech would have made a good newspaper column. But that is not the same as leadership.
Badenoch says she is setting out a plan for the future. That is leadership.
Q: You talked a moment ago, in relation to Rachel Reeves, about Keir Starmer’s women problem. What is the relevance of her gender.
Badenoch says she was referring to the fact that Reeves boasted about being the first woman chancellor.
Asked about the Yvette Cooper announcement today on grooming gangs (see 1.36pm), Badenoch says local inquiries are not enough. There has to be a national inquiry.
On trust, she says the Tories got a lot of things wrong. But they got a lot of things right too, for example on education, she says.
Q: [From Christopher Hope from GB News] Why are you letting Nigel Farage make all the running? And would you merge with Reform UK?
Badenoch says Farage wants to destroy the Conservative party. “Why on earth would we merge with that?”
She says she is not going to make promises without plans.
But they do have policies, she says. They believe in lower taxes.
Q: [From Hugo Gye from the i] What is your assessment of the state of the economy?
Badenoch says Labour has a fundamental misunderstanding of the economy. It is “not government that creates growth, it is business that creates growth”, she says.
Badenoch is now taking questions.
Q: [From Martyn Brown from the Express] What will you do differently on Brexit? And you say you will support Keir Starmer if he does the right thing. Will you back him if he sacks Rachel Reeves.
On Brexit, Badenoch says:
Doing things differently doesn’t require us to steer away from Conservatism. We are Conservative. I want to take us back to the very best version of who we are.
On Brexit, I think there is a lot more that we could have and should have done. I did what I could as business secretary, I removed the supremacy of the European court of justice. We removed about 4,000 EU laws. But what we need to start doing is looking at where we have competitive advantage with countries around the world, and use our regulatory system to exploit that competitive advantage.
What I worry about with Labor is they’re looking to just copy what is already out there and just stay aligned with what the EU is doing.
Badenoch is on her peroration.
Conservatives are under new leadership. We are going to do things differently, and this is my message to people watching today.
We need a government that supports, not punishes, those who do the right thing.
We need to rebuild the state to be more focused, more efficient and more effective.
We need to make our country more resilient, secure and prosperous, where hard work is rewarded, where children can have a better life than their parents.
It may not feel like it right now, but our country’s best days are ahead of us.
Badenoch says things need to change.
First, we must restore trust. We will start by fulfilling the role the British people gave us, being an effective opposition, fighting for common sense and truth, building a plan which actually delivers.
She says Keir Starmer cannot do what the people need because “he’s a lawyer, not a leader”.
Second, we are absolutely going to keep saying what people in this country think. We’re not going to be quiet about the things that are too important for our country.
Badenoch says she has a record of doing this.
Let’s take the Post Office, another scandal that needed addressing. Hundreds of postmasters, wrongfully convicted, decent lives ruined, a national scandal. We were told that it was being sorted, that ministers didn’t need to get involved, and yet the system was so slow, so I made sure that victims got justice with an unprecedented law to quash the unfair convictions of sub postmasters.
Under my leadership, our party is going to be about telling it straight. We need more people in politics who will do the right thing and who will use their common sense, even when they are attacked.
When I was a minister, I took on extremists who were putting women and children in harm’s way. They called me a transphobe. They even called me homophobic. They said I was fighting culture wars as I tried to stop young children from receiving irreversible transgender procedures without any evidential basis – that same ideology led to male rapists being put in female prisons. This was one scandal other politicians were too scared to tackle and tried to ignore.
And she identifies a third priority.
Third, we are going to push Keir Starmer to do the right thing for the good of the country.
Badenoch says politicians are refusing to focus on what matters.
This has to stop because the dream of every generation, that our children can have a better future than we did, is slowly dying. It’s dying because as our problems have got more urgent, our politics has got less serious.
Since July, there has been more discussion in parliament on Oasis tickets than on our 2.7 trillion pound debt pile. That has to stop.
The young people I speak to are deeply despondent that their country is unable to provide them better opportunities, let alone guarantee health, wealth and prosperity.
Badenoch claims Labour policies are making things worse.
Business Success is treated with suspicion, a burden to be tolerated rather than celebrated.
It doesn’t have to be like this. Last Friday, I spoke with a group of workers in Derbyshire. They are the backbone of our country. They have little time for politics. They’re not interested because they are trying to build a better life for themselves and their families. They want government to do what it says it’s going to do, and they don’t really ask for much more.
One lady, a single parent, told me just how much impact rising prices were still having, that it just seemed to be one thing on top of another, that nothing seems to be getting better, and it feels like no one is looking at it.
Part of the problem is that Labour ministers don’t have business experience, she says.
