Badenoch says Tories would also let couples leave £1m exempt from inheritance tax, as well as family home
Badenoch has more for her audience.
double quotation markOn top of that, couples will be able to leave an additional £1m tax free.
And these changes mean every inheritance tax bill will be cut and the number of families paying inheritance tax will fall by more than half.
Conference, my ambition, my ambition is to abolish inheritance tax altogether as soon as we can afford it.
That can only happen with a Conservative government. I believe the people who work hard and say should be rewarded for that effort.
Key events
21h ago
Afternoon summary
21h ago
What journalists and commentators are saying about Badenoch’s speech
21h ago
Scrapping inheritance tax for homes could be ‘very bad policy’ because people wouldn’t move, former IFS head says
22h ago
Reform UK says only 2% of homes, owned by the rich, will benefit from Tory inheritance tax pledge
23h ago
Labour accuses Badenoch of proposing ‘nothing to help ordinary families’ and just ‘prioritising the wealthiest’
23h ago
How Tories are now committed to cuts worth £71bn, including £36bn from welfare, and spending worth £34bn
23h ago
Kemi Badenoch’s speech – snap verdict
24h ago
Badenoch wraps up speech claiming Tories offering ‘something for everyone’
1d ago
Badenoch says Tories would also let couples leave £1m exempt from inheritance tax, as well as family home
1d ago
Badenoch says Tories would legislate to ensure no one pays inheritance tax on family home
1d ago
Badenoch says Tories have now identified cuts to government spending worth more than £70bn
1d ago
Badenoch accuses Labour of taking UK into ‘tax doom loop’
1d ago
Badenoch describes Burnham as ‘Paddington Bear PM’, saying ‘hope is not a strategy’
1d ago
Badenoch condemns Reform UK for suggesting black people can’t be English
1d ago
Badenoch rules out pact with Reform UK, suggesting some of them are facing jail
1d ago
Badenoch says reopening Brexit debate would be ‘terrible idea’
1d ago
Badenoch claims Burnham ‘wilfully ignorant’ of lessons from failures of nationalisation
1d ago
Badenoch accuses Burnham of being unprincipled and opportunist
1d ago
Badenoch says Tories have changed, and can lure customers back – like M&S
1d ago
Badenoch says Tories want candidates ‘from all walks of life’
1d ago
Badenoch claims she has get rid of Tory infighting
1d ago
Badenoch gloats about Starmer’s downfall, and insists ‘I’m not someone who gets written off’
1d ago
Badenoch starts speech saying there’s ‘fight coming in British politics’ over public spending
1d ago
Lumsden accuses Burnham of delaying Jackdaw gas field decision to help Labour’s chances in London byelection
1d ago
Aberdeen South byelection winner Douglas Lumsden introduces Badenoch
1d ago
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp accuses police of putting ‘racial politics’ above public safety
1d ago
Timothy suggests ‘Labour’s ideology’ on diversity partly to blame for killings in Southport and Nottingham
1d ago
Tory chair Kevin Hollinrake mocks Labour MP over ‘far-right’ black labradors comment
1d ago
Shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy claims police have been ‘corrupted by ideology of multiculturalism’
1d ago
What policies has Badenoch announced at conference, who gains, and what it says about Tory strategy
1d ago
Voters more likely to reject Badenoch’s claim Tories have changed under her leadership than to agree, poll suggests
1d ago
How many people pay inheritance tax?
1d ago
Badenoch expected to propose inheritance tax cut in speech to Tories saying UK faces ‘battle of ideas’ over spending
Afternoon summary
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
Kemi Badenoch arriving at the conference venue with her husband, Hamish Badenoch. Photograph: Jacob King/PAShare
This is from Andrew Harrop, former general secretary of the Fabian Society, the Labour thinktank.
double quotation markKemi Badenoch has just KILLED downsizing in retirement
Welcome to millions of frail, single pensioners, in homes far too big for them, refusing to move for fear of the tax hit
ShareWhat journalists and commentators are saying about Badenoch’s speech
Here is some reaction to Kemi Badenoch’s speech from commentators.
James Heale at the Spectator says Badenoch’s speech marks the return of conviction politics.
double quotation markMost conference speeches are significant for only one moment. Kemi Badenoch’s address to the Tory faithful today had two of note. The first was a highly energised, full-throated assault on Reform UK in a moment which signified the death of any ‘Unite the right’ campaign while she remains leader. The second was her pledge to legislate to stop inheritance tax being levied on family homes. Together, they mark the return to conviction politics after an era in which men like Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak were more comfortable making technical arguments. Badenoch’s speech, following Andy Burnham’s turn last week, was deeply ideological, explicitly welcoming the return to a proper ‘battle of ideas’ when parliament resumes sitting on Monday.
From Ben Riley-Smith from the Sunday Times
double quotation markWhat did Kemi Badenoch go big on in her Tory conference closer:
Tax cut for those with wealth, being the party of homeowners, no lost childcare if you earn over £100k, saying Tories will let you keep more of your money.
What did Badenoch not go big on:
Small boats. Immigration. Lots of culture wars stuff. The ECHR.
Felt like a speech aimed more at Middle England / Lib Dem waverers than Red Wall Reform hardliners. (‘Stronger borders’ literally dropped from the 2025 conference slogan this year.)
The big attack on Farage and Reform was done on character not policy – rejecting its view of Englishness.
The Tories clearly see the path back to office as owning the economy.
Steven Swinford and Oliver Wright at the Times say the speech shows Badenoch wants to fight the next election on tax and spend.
double quotation markInterestingly, despite the speech lasting well over an hour, Badenoch barely addressed the issue of migration,choosing instead to focus on the economy, where polling shows that the Tories are trusted more than other party.
And there was a coherence to the offer. At last year’s conference speech she pledged to abolish stamp duty when people moved home, and in this year’s speech she promised that no one would pay tax on that home when they died.
Badenoch is gambling that the next election will be fought not on Reform’s turf of culture wars, but on a much more traditional divide between tax and spend.
From ITV’s Robert Peston
double quotation markBadenoch announces no one will pay inheritance tax on the value of the family home. Which brings the risk that no older person will sell before they die. Oh dear. And she says she will add £1m to the tax free inheritance tax threshold
From the pollster Luke Tryl
double quotation markThink that’s the toughest I’ve seen a Tory leader been on Reform since their emergence as a serious political force, directly taking on claims about Englishness and identity from some Reform politicians. Feels a significant change in approach.
double quotation markWe know there are a group of newer Reform voters who are attracted to Nigel Farage and who are willing to roll the dice on something different, but who recoil from what they see as too extreme. Recent suggestions about Englishness of English football team fall into that category.
From John Rentoul at the Independent
double quotation markThe message of that speech was that she will have no truck with Reform. “To those who say ‘unite the right’: we are not uniting with that.” The most powerful section was her denunciation of politicians who suggest that you cannot be Black and British. “We are not like them. We are different. We are the Conservative Party.”
But apart from that, it was a long, rather disconnected lecture setting out the case for a Tory party that believes in living within our means against a Labour Party that wants to tax, spend and borrow.
From Steve Richards, the writer and broadcaster
double quotation markA well delivered speech from K Badenoch.. but sums don’t remotely add up in her ‘something for everyone’ speech..and the ‘something’ was largely targeted at a few wealthy voters. She’s right to rule out any deal with Reform..but that means her future depends on Reform collapse
From the Times columnist Sonia Sodha
double quotation markNaturally I disagreed with a lot of that speech from Badenoch but that was a strong and characteristically-punchy speech, reckon the Tories will be pleased with that.
From Alastair Campbell from the Rest is Politics podcast (and a former Labour spin doctor)
double quotation markWell that was certainly a barnstorming speech so far as the audience in the hall was concerned. BUT there was a glaring clash with the more thoughtful essay @KemiBadenoch published at the weekend in which she rightly said parties should not spray out promises without being clear about the assessments made, the trade offs required and the consequences analysed. Sadly she didn’t do any of that in the speech. “Something for everyone” only happens in La La land. Nor did she adequately deal with the “you’ve had fourteen years” problem she rightly identified in her booklet.
Her position as leader is rock solid. Farage will have felt a bit of heat from it. And there is a proper big argument between the main parties. But the Tories will have to do a lot more work on serious policy and serious atonement! As I said on @RestIsPolitics today though, she certainly has confidence!!
Ali Fortescue at Sky News says Badenoch’s key announcement was not a complete surprise, but “rabbit adjacent”.
ShareScrapping inheritance tax for homes could be ‘very bad policy’ because people wouldn’t move, former IFS head says
Paul Johnson, the former head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told Sky News that getting rid of inheritance tax could turn out to be a “very, very bad policy” because it might stop older people selling their homes. It might give people “an even bigger incentive just to hold on to big homes for longer and longer”, he said
As the Financial Times reports, Johnson told Sky News that the measure risked undoing the benefits of the “good” idea of abolishing stamp duty announced by the Tories last year.
The campaign group Tax Justice UK has criticised Kemi Badenoch’s speech. Faiza Shaheen, its executive director, said:
double quotation markCutting inheritance tax, as trillions of pounds is going to pass between generations, is a reckless move by any politician that claims to be serious about getting Britain thriving. This is a policy that would take money from some of the poorest, to give to the wealthiest. And it would deprive public services of vital cash when the pressures on delivery are increasingly acute.
Kemi Badenoch was doorstepped on her way out of the party conference by Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt, who put it to her that she was love bombing the home counties. She said she was “love bombing the country”, and that the speech contained something for everyone.
Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, has criticised Kemi Badenoch’s proposed inheritance tax cut. He said:
double quotation markThis is a tax paid only by the very richest estates – 95% pay no inheritance tax at all. Cutting it would do nothing for ordinary people.
This is the same old Tory playbook: cutting taxes for their rich mates and leaving working people to pick up the bill. They are a party for inherited wealth, not workers.
Kemi Badenoch’s speech at her party’s conference in Birmingham lasted one hour and six minutes, almost matching the length of Andy Burnham’s address in Liverpool last week, the Press Association reports. Burnham spoke for around one hour and five minutes.
ShareReform UK says only 2% of homes, owned by the rich, will benefit from Tory inheritance tax pledge
Reform UK claims that only 2% of homes will be benefit from Kemi Badenoch’s proposal to exempt family homes from inheritance tax. And most of them are in London, the party says, citing a calculation based on house price figures from Savills.
Robert Jenrick, the former Tory who is now Reform UK’s Treasury spokesperson, said:
double quotation markAs usual, Kemi has chickened out of doing anything big. Presumably, it’s because she couldn’t match Reform’s pledge to resign if she doesn’t deliver on her promises.
While the Tory party is offering handouts to multi-millionaires, Reform will give everyone a £500 tax cut by raising the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000. The Tory party is looking after its own in Kensington, Reform is looking after the country.
She’s for the 2%, we’re for 98%.
ShareLabour accuses Badenoch of proposing ‘nothing to help ordinary families’ and just ‘prioritising the wealthiest’
Labour has said that Kemi Badenoch’s conference speech shows that the Conservative party is just prioritising the very rich.
In a response to the speech, Bridget Phillipson, the Labour chair, said:
double quotation markThe Tories haven’t changed. Kemi Badenoch has shown that the Tories’ choice is to do nothing to help ordinary families struggling with the cost of social care, prioritising the wealthiest instead. Only Labour will build a National Care Service, with free personal care for all older people who need it.
Kemi Badenoch’s Tories wouldn’t take this country the “right way”. They would put Britain into reverse with the same Tory failures that crashed our economy and left public services crumbling. That’s not a future anyone wants to see.
ShareHow Tories are now committed to cuts worth £71bn, including £36bn from welfare, and spending worth £34bn
The Conservative party has handed out some figures explaining how they have costed their promises.
Here are the figures.
Savings from cuts they were proposing at last year’s conference – £47bn
Spending cuts announced at last year’s conference Photograph: CCHQ
Total savings from welfare cuts they are proposing now – £36bn
Total welfare cuts proposed now Photograph: CCHQ
Total savings from all cuts they are proposing now – £71bn
Total savings announced now Photograph: CCHQ
Total spending commitments being proposed now – £34bn
Tory document with costing for spending policies Photograph: CCHQ
This chart shows that the inheritance tax (IHT) policy announced by Kemi Badenoch is costed at £6bn. (Last year’s headline conference tax cut, abolishing stamp duty on homes, is costed at £9bn.)
ShareKemi Badenoch’s speech – snap verdict
Kemi Badenoch revived her personal approval ratings (but not her party’s) with her conference speech last year, which proposed abolishing stamp duty, and today she was under pressure to match that with another Big Idea. It is unusual for a party to place so much emphasis on a “retail offer” at this stage in the electoral cycle (because who knows what state the economy will be in by 2029), but there might be an election sooner and Tory electoral ratings are so poor that she probably cannot afford to play safe. Promising to abolish inheritance tax for homes will be hugely popular with her party, and with the rightwing media, and almost certainly with voters at large too.
But that does not necessarily mean it is good public policy. Badenoch seems to be incentivising older people to buy ever bigger homes at a stage in life where it would make more sense to downsize. It is a huge tax break for wealthy families living in London and the south of England, and coming after two other announcements aimed at exactly this demographic (see 10.14am), it means Tory conference 2026 has probably done more to widen social inequality than any other party conference in recent history. Or it would if these policies ever actually happen. “Retail offers” only work if voters think a party will be in a position to implement them, and the Tories may find that on this front doubts remain.
Badenoch’s speech was clear, and very, very confident. But there was more assertion, than argument; Andy Burnham’s was probably better in terms of telling a story about what has gone wrong with Britain over the past few decades. Burnham also exuded warmth; there was none of that from Badenoch, but plenty of force, and even nastiness. Around the world leaders like Donald Trump are getting elected on the basis that, although clearly unpleasant, they are at least tough. If Britain goes down that route, Badenoch will thrive. But recently we have tended to elect leaders who are at least likeable, and on this measure Badenoch does not score so well.
The speech was remarkable in part for the amount of time she spent lambasting her opponents. She was quite nasty about Keir Starmer and Burnham, contemptuous of the Greens and – in one of the most interesting passages of the speech – highly critical of Reform UK. (See 12.17pm.) This time last year, all the talk was of a possible pact. Now she dismissed them as criminal. (This passage did not fit very well with her tributes to Jeffrey Archer, who may have been great company but was also a scoundrel, and Ann Widdecombe, who was clear proof than not everyone in Reform UK is a rogue or a crook.)
The best passage in the speech was the attack on people like Suella Braverman in Reform UK flirting with ethnonationalism, and the claim that black people cannot be English. (See 12.20pm.) It has taken Badenoch a while to speak out on this, and she has been silent when some of her own MPs have dabbled in this territory. It was powerful and personal. But she was wrong to suggest that “when Ian Wright and John Barnes were playing, nobody was questioning whether they were English”. There was plenty of racism in football in that era and this was another example of a Badenoch assertion running ahead of the facts.
Kemi Badenoch giving her speech. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 10.00 EDT
Badenoch wraps up speech claiming Tories offering ‘something for everyone’
Badenoch is now on her peroration.
double quotation markIf you run a business, we will get government out of your way and cut your taxes.
If you are a parent, you will make sure free childcare is never removed because of a pay rise.
If you want to own your home, we will scrap stamp duty and make houses cheaper to build.
If you’re a woman who knows biological sex is real like the Darlington nurses do, we will protect your privacy.
If you are a police officer who puts your life on the line like Sergeant Martin Blake did, we will back you.
If you’re a mother in a village threatened with a migrant camp like in Piddington, and you want your children to feel safe, we will deport illegal immigrants, not house them.
If you are worried about the threat of Russia or Iran, we will keep Britain safe.
If you’re leaving school, we’ll let you choose between work, university or a high quality apprenticeship.
If you’re a graduate paying over and above for your student loans, we will end the interest rate rip off.
If you are a farmer, we will end the family farms tax.
If you are a veteran, we will protect you from malicious prosecution.
If you are a victim of crime, the perpetrators will be locked up.
If you are on welfare, we will get you into work.
If you are under 25, we will make it easier for you to get a job.
If you have retired, we will protect your pension.
And if you want to pass on your home to your family, we will make sure you don’t pay a penny in tax.
We have something for everyone.
Kemi Badenoch giving her conference speech. Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty ImagesShare
Badenoch goes on to explain her inheritance tax proposal.
double quotation markSo, conference, this is my guarantee.
No stamp duty when you buy your home, no mansion tax when you live in your home, and no inheritance tax on your home when you pass it to your children or grandchildren.
That is what the next Conservative government will deliver.
And I say this to everyone in our country. I want you to know that we are on your side and whoever you are, you will be better off under a Conservative government.