I'm a classic old school Conservative, says Kemi Badenoch
The Tory leader seeks to echo Margaret Thatcher as she sets out her guiding political principles.
By BBC News
Kemi Badenoch has described herself as a “classic old school Conservative” as she begins the Conservatives’ annual conference with a set of policy pledges and a 100-page statement of her guiding principles.
In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, she said she believed in “common sense” and in people working hard and being rewarded for that effort.
She also said welfare should be a “safety net, not a lifestyle”. The comments come as she uses the conference to present her political argument ahead of the party’s next election campaign.
Badenoch has published an essay, The Right Way, which is presented as a deliberate echo of Margaret Thatcher’s 1976 essay The Right Approach. In it, she says the last Conservative government failed because it did not know what it stood for.
The document says the “next Conservative government will have one central principle: business, not government, creates growth”.
The BBC report says Badenoch is setting out a broader conservative case built around personal responsibility and a smaller role for the state where people can act for themselves.
Her conference intervention comes as she seeks to define the party’s direction after a difficult period in office and to frame the Conservatives around a clearer set of beliefs rather than a list of standalone promises.
The party’s conference is under way, and Badenoch is using it to spell out what she says should guide the Conservatives if they return to government.