Kemi Badenoch will vow to stop Labour “stealing from our children and grandchildren” with its reckless economic policies in her Tory conference speech on Wednesday. The Conservative leader will warn that Rachel Reeves’s “doom loop” of tax rises and runaway borrowing will saddle future generations with an astronomical burden for decades to come.
Setting out a new “golden rule” for the British economy, Mrs Badenoch will promise to use every pound saved to slash taxes and reduce the deficit to boost the economy if she becomes prime minister. In her first keynote speech as the party leader, she will say: “Over the next decade, Rachel Reeves is going to double the deficit with her borrowing and tax doom loop. It’s not sustainable and it’s not fair.
“It is stealing from our children and grandchildren. And Conservatives will put a stop to it.”
Her defiant message comes as the opposition leader battles to revive Tory fortunes after months of dire poll ratings and a slew of defections to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
A blizzard of new policies on border control, leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, cracking down on welfare and bringing down energy bills have eased jitters among the party’s supporters.
Mrs Badenoch will tell the Tory faithful in Manchester that hers is the only party in Britain “who can be trusted to meet the tests of our generation”.
She will say: “We are the only party with a plan to get our economy back on track. We have to get the deficit down.
“And we must also show how every tax cut or spending increase is paid for.”
Setting out a new golden economic rule, she will add that “living within our means is our first priority”.
“We’re not going to do what Labour did – promise not to cut public spending, only to take away pensioners’ winter fuel payment,” she will add.
Earlier this week, the Tories announced plans to take a chainsaw to Britain’s spiralling welfare bill as part of a £47billion savings drive.
Some £23billion is expected to come from cuts to welfare, replacing payments to people with “low-level” mental health conditions with treatment and barring non-citizens from claiming support, among other reforms.
The move to shrink the benefits bill puts clear blue water between the Tories and Labour, after Sir Keir Starmer was forced to water down his welfare reforms because of a growing backlash from his backbenchers.
They have also vowed to slash Civil Service numbers by around a quarter, saving £8billion, and reducing aid spending by £7billion to 0.1% of national income.
Mrs Badenoch has been dogged by criticism that she has not acted quickly enough since becoming party leader almost 12 months ago.
In a conference overshadowed by questions about her leadership, Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has avoided making disloyal comments about her.
But a YouGov poll published on Monday suggested half of Conservative members did not want Mrs Badenoch to lead the party into the next election, while Mr Jenrick was their top pick to replace her.
Despite this, Mrs Badenoch insisted her party was having “a very good conference”, saying members had been “thrilled” with the policies put forward by the Shadow Cabinet.
She also brushed off the threat from Reform UK, which announced the defections of 20 Conservative councillors on Tuesday morning as Mrs Badenoch began a round of media interviews.
Arguing the party was “shedding a lot of baggage”, she said: “It’s going to be a long journey back from a historic defeat, and on very long, difficult journeys, you will lose some people on the way.”
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp also dismissed the defections, adding: “Nigel Farage was boasting about MP defections during our conference, which has not happened.
“So I don’t think we can worry too much about what Reform may be saying.”
But Mr Farage said: “The Conservative Party is dead and can no longer serve as an effective opposition.
“It is no wonder that councillors who actually want to fix this country are finding their natural home with Reform.”
Reform UK secured 677 seats at the local elections in May and took over several formerly Conservative-controlled authorities, including Derbyshire, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, North Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and West Northamptonshire. The party also gained Doncaster from Labour.
East Wiltshire MP Danny Kruger left the Conservatives last month to join Reform.
Reacting to trailed excerpts of Mrs Badenoch’s speech to the Conservative Party conference, a Labour spokesman said on Tuesday: “Kemi Badenoch has some brass neck. It’s astounding that her latest speech still contains no apology for the Conservatives crashing the economy – which left families saddled with sky-high mortgages and rising prices in the supermarket.
“The Shadow Chancellor yesterday urged the Government to hike income tax. Meanwhile, the Tories’ fantasy public spending ‘savings’ are done on the back of the same fag packet Nigel Farage has been writing on. The Tories are all over the place – it shows they’ve learned nothing and still can’t be trusted with the public finances.
“Labour fixed the foundations of our economy and is focused on renewing Britain. That’s seen five interest rate cuts, more growth, and is putting money back in people’s pockets.”