Kemi Badenoch will tell Conservative conference that British politics faces “a battle for the soul of this nation”, as she accuses the government of wanting to “wind back the clock to failed ideas of the past”.
In her speech in Birmingham on Wednesday afternoon, the Conservative leader is expected to say: “Conference, there is a fight coming in British politics. A fight that we have not seen in this country for more than half a century.
“It will be a battle for the soul of this nation. A battle of ideas. A battle that goes to the very core of who we are and what kind of country we want to be.”
She will say that Labour believes “economic growth is created by politicians” and that “government knows best”. She will accuse ministers of thinking that “your income, your pension and your savings are theirs to take and then hand out as they see fit”.
“They claim that what they are doing is compassionate but we know that these ideas will make every single person in this country poorer”, she is due to say. “Your taxes will be higher. Your bills will go up. You will find it harder and harder to make ends meet.”
Badenoch will add: “Just because these ideas are delivered on TikTok doesn’t make them any less dangerous than they have always been.”
Setting out the Conservative side of the argument, she will say her party is “fighting again for the belief that what people earn belongs to them, not government”. She will say “the collective wisdom of people in our country is greater than the central planning of bureaucrats and politicians”, and that “spending money we don’t have on things we can’t afford is not kind, it is reckless”.
She is expected to warn: “This is a critical moment. The world is becoming more dangerous. Western economies are becoming more fragile. We are running out of money and running out of time to put it right.”
Badenoch will say the “fundamental problem we have right now is that our country is running out of money”. She will say national debt “currently stands at nearly £3 trillion and we are adding more than £100 billion every year”.
“Last year, four in every five pounds borrowed by the government was spent on debt interest alone”, she will add. “That’s like taking out a second mortgage just to pay the interest on your first mortgage.”
She will say “growing the economy will be the central organising principle of the next Conservative government”, and that “there is no national security without economic security, and there is no economic security without national security”.
Badenoch will add: “Andy Burnham doesn’t understand this. He sees no need to fix the public finances. I’m not even sure he knows what is going wrong.
“If he did, he would be making tough decisions to bring spending down. He is making a lot of promises. Promises need to be paid for.”
She will argue that more government means “higher taxes and higher borrowing”, which will “weaken business, weaken investment, weaken hiring and lower growth”.
She will call this “the tax doom loop that is making us all poorer”.
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