Badenoch vowed to boost British industry with cheaper energy, by cutting regulation and building more, saying: “We need to fall in love with building again and building things well.”
Asked by BBC Wales whether the Tories can actually win in Wales, Badenoch said “anything can happen”, and pointed to Wales’s new voting system “where every vote counts”.
“Conservatives up and down Wales don’t have to think about tactical voting or maybe we can’t win in a particular area,” she said.
Badenoch had previously criticised Robert Jenrick, before he defected for Reform, for describing Britain as broken, and appeared reluctant to agree with Senedd group leader Millar that Wales was “broken”.
Pushed on whether she agreed with Millar, she said: “It’s a loose framing.”
She added: “There are things in Wales that are broken. All of this is semantics. Everyone knows there are some things that aren’t working very well, but we need to also remain positive.”
On post-election deals, she said it is up to “local people” in her party “to decide what coalition is going to work best with them”.