Kemi Badenoch was interviewed last night by The Spectator‘s Political Editor, Tim Shipman, in front of a live audience at Church House in Westminster. Much of what the Conservative leader said was a retreading over familiar ground. The Conservative party was a ‘distressed asset’ when she inherited the leadership, she said, but is now getting a second hearing. Badenoch said, of the economy, that the country must cut spending before it cuts taxes, and that it is time that the government gets out of the way of business. The Conservative party was ‘for the people who get up every day’, she insisted, and that what is needed in politics is more common sense.
Badenoch said that Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson had acted like a ‘Gestapo officer’
Some policy suggestions were more novel. While discussing what principles Tory candidates must have to stand during the next general election, Badenoch suggested that abolishing Net Zero targets could be mandatory alongside committing to withdrawal from the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights). Badenoch reaffirmed her position that legal immigration would be reformed to account for the culture of origin countries. She also explicitly rejected axing the triple lock as it ‘not the root cause of the problem’ with the economy. Badenoch insisted that the state pension is ‘not that much’ and that bearing down on pension expenditure would just mean redistributing a shrinking pie when the focus should instead be on growth.
