Kemi Badenoch has solidified her position as Tory leader with a policy-laden Tory conference speech aimed at silencing her critics.
Addressing a packed hall at the Manchester Convention Centre, Ms Badenoch said the Labour government is “making one hell of a mess” and set out plans for how the Conservatives would fix it.
The Independent looks at what policies Ms Badenoch promised party members in her headline address.
Stamp duty
The biggest headline-grabber in Ms Badenoch’s speech was her vow to axe stamp duty if the Conservatives win the next general election.
Figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies show it would cost around £4.5bn to axe the tax as it stands, but the Conservatives offered a “cautious” estimate that it would cost £9bn by the end of the decade.
The party said this would be paid for out of a £47bn pot of savings shadow ministers claim to have found, made up of welfare cuts, downsizing the civil service and further slashing the country’s foreign aid budget.
In her speech, Ms Badenoch said: “The next Conservative government will abolish stamp duty on your home. It will be gone.
“That is how we will help achieve the dream of home ownership for millions.”
Scrapping Labour tax hikes
Ms Badenoch also vowed that the Conservatives will undo a series of Labour tax hikes they have campaigned against.
Most notable was the promise to undo the government’s changes to inheritance tax on family farms, dubbed the tractor tax.
But also for the chop under a Tory government is Labour’s levy of VAT on private school fees, which Ms Badenoch said was a “vindictive tax on education”.
These too would be funded from its £47bn savings pot.
But noticeably absent on the list of tax hikes the Tories would undo was Rachel Reeves’s employer national insurance hike, which would cost tens of billions of pounds, despite the Conservatives having linked it to job losses and sluggish economic growth.
Employment rights
Among the more risky promises in Ms Badenoch’s speech was a promise to undo Angela Rayner’s workers’ rights reforms.
The policy package will give employees more security and better protections in the workplace, but the Conservatives argue it will hammer employers and stunt economic growth.
“We will reverse the terrible measures in Angela Rayner’s unemployment bill, written by the unions, for the unions… that will wrap firms in red tape, cost businesses £5bn and make Angela Rayner one of the last people in Britain to ever be legally sacked,” Ms Badenoch said.
The workers’ rights package will have had years to bed in by the next general election, making vowing to scrap it now a risky move.
Banning doctors’ strikes
Another eye-catching policy was the Tory leader’s plan to ban doctors from going on strike.
Ms Badenoch linked industrial action in the NHS to higher waiting lists, promising to crack down on unions if the Conservatives are elected. The unions were not happy.
British Medical Association council deputy chair Dr Emma Runswick said: “Doctors should have a right to strike, just like everyone else. Banning strikes is anti-democratic and at odds with any concept of a free British society. Gagging committed professionals when they sound the alarm about NHS crises will make the problems worse.
“Patients are having operations or appointments postponed every single day in the NHS due to understaffing and lack of beds; undervaluing staff contributes to that. Banning doctors from expressing their concerns with legitimate industrial action only devalues them further.”
Golden economic rule
The speech was underpinned by what Ms Badenoch dubbed her “golden economic rule”. She promised the new doctrine for Tory tax and spending in a bid to distance the party from the legacy of Liz Truss, who sparked financial chaos in her 49 days as prime minister.
Outlining the £47bn of savings already identified by the opposition, she said the Conservatives will spend half of all the money they claw back on tax cuts and the other half on paying down the deficit.
“That’s the Conservative way – responsibility today, opportunity tomorrow,” she added.
