Kemi Badenoch is set to announce a “golden rule” for the economy in her conference speech on Wednesday as she desperately tries to restore the Conservative Party’s credibility on the nation’s finances.
With millions of Britons still reeling from the impact of Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-Budget, the Tory leader will attempt to restore voters’ trust in the party’s handling of the economy by pledging that half of all money saved from cuts must be put towards shrinking the deficit.
The other half would go on spending or cutting taxes to boost the economy, under the move that she will pledge to introduce if the Tories are re-elected to government.
The announcement in her keynote speech for the Tory conference in Manchester on Wednesday comes as shadow cabinet members admit that the party is “struggling to even get a hearing with the public”.
With the party consistently polling in the mid teens with around half the support of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, the conference has been noticeable for how few have attended and the low level of interest in policy announcements.
Ms Badenoch has made it clear she wants to put economic credibility back at the heart of the Conservative offering to voters, and will say the party’s plans for immigration, employment and policing require a strong economy.
But it follows her taking the party to the hard right with plans to deport 150,000 foreigners a year and leave the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) as she tried to match Reform.
However, the new policies come over huge uncertainty about whether she will remain leader, with shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick the leading attraction at the conference.
Mr Jenrick has been the most popular figure in the fringes despite being caught up in a racism row after a recording of comments he made in Birmingham about non-whites emerged.
Ms Badenoch, who was noticeably annoyed about having to defend Mr Jenrick, will be hoping the final day of a very quiet conference will allow her to get traction on her economic argument.
In her speech, Kemi Badenoch MP is expected to say: “The reason the Conservative Party is the only party in Britain who can be trusted to meet the tests of our generation is that none of this works without a strong economy.”
She hopes that the recent woes of chancellor Rachel Reeves and the pressure she is facing on failing to get economic growth with demands for even more taxes in the next Budget, will allow the Tories to capitalise on general anger about the nation’s finances.
Ms Badenoch will say: “It starts with fiscal responsibility. We have to get the deficit down. And we must also show how every tax cut or spending increase is paid for.
“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.”
She will pledge: “Conservatives will put a stop to it. We’re not going to do what Labour did – promise not to cut public spending, only to take away pensioners’ winter fuel payment.”
Already the party claims it has identified £47bn of savings including £23bn on welfare. “Under our Golden Rule – half of those savings will go towards reducing Labour’s deficit. And with the rest, we are going to get our economy growing. That’s the Conservative way. Responsibility today. Opportunity tomorrow.”
But a Labour Party spokesperson said: “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.”
