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In the clearest sign yet of what a Badenoch government would look like, the Tory leader said her party would help people ‘keep more of what they earn’ and distanced the Conservatives from Reform UK – ITV Political Editor Robert Peston gives his analysis <\/p>\n
Kemi Badenoch vowed to slash inheritance tax and put growth at the heart of her plans for government as she pitched the Conservatives as the \u201cno-nonsense\u201d party to take on Andy Burnham\u2019s Labour.<\/p>\n
The Tory leader said the next election will be a \u201cbattle for the soul of the nation\u201d as she promised the party would focus on letting people \u201ckeep more of what they earn\u201d if it returned to power.<\/p>\n
In a speech to the Conservative annual conference in Birmingham, she pledged to abolish death duties on all \u201cfamily homes\u201d and allow couples to leave behind an additional \u00a31 million tax-free.<\/p>\n
The move would mean the number of families paying inheritance tax will fall by more than half, Mrs Badenoch said as she accused Labour of being \u201caddicted to welfare\u201d and treating income and savings as \u201ctheirs to take and hand out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Labour Party think it is selfish to pass on what you have earned to your children. We don\u2019t,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As she seeks to reverse the Tories\u2019 fortunes following its 2024 electoral rout, she insisted she was \u201cnot someone who gets written off\u201d and \u201cneither is the Conservative Party\u201d.<\/p>\n
Credit: Jacob King\/PA<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to win, not for ourselves, but for our country. For every hard-working person out there, for everyone who wants to see common sense restored, for everyone who wants to see Britain working again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to win for everyone who wants to see our great country united.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tories have put the economy top of their agenda at their conference this autumn, focusing less on the so-called \u201cculture wars\u201d that dominated previous years.<\/p>\n
Mrs Badenoch said the party, which is behind Labour and narrowly trailing Reform UK in opinion polls, would adopt a \u201ctough love\u201d approach to slash the benefits bill and get more young people into work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to put the fair back in welfare,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is morally wrong to tell people suffering bouts of mild anxiety that they are disabled and cannot work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attacking the Burnham Government, she said: \u201cIt\u2019s the same old high tax, high spend Labour. No common sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cAddicted to welfare. Drowning our country in debt. Choking our economy with taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Credit: Jacob King\/PA<\/p>\n
Reviving the economy would be the \u201ccentral organising principle\u201d of a future Conservative administration, she said.<\/p>\n
Claiming the party was united after an \u201cexport boom of drama queens\u201d who have defected to Reform UK, she again ruled out forming a pact with Nigel Farage\u2019s party to avoid splitting the right-wing vote at the next election.<\/p>\n
Mrs Badenoch was given a standing ovation by Tory politicians and delegates gathered in the main hall as she suggested Reform UK would take the country \u201cbackwards\u201d, adding: \u201cTo those who say \u2018unite the right\u2019, we are not uniting with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Members of the shadow cabinet ahead of Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch keynote speech during the Conservative Party conference Credit: Jacob King\/PA<\/p>\n
Along with promising to cut inheritance tax, the Tories have used the conference to announce a raft of new policy pledges including:<\/p>\n
Halving the rate of employer national insurance on earnings for people aged between 21 to 24.<\/p>\n
Blocking school leavers from moving straight onto out-of-work benefits in what they describe as a \u201ctough love\u201d approach to boost youth employment.<\/p>\n
Scrapping the so-called \u201cmansion tax\u201d on properties in England with a value higher than \u00a32 million due to come into effect in 2028.<\/p>\n
Cutting red tape and abolishing arms-length bodies including Natural England in a bid to speed up development and reduce the cost of new homes for buyers.<\/p>\n
Investing \u00a310 billion over 10 years in a new \u201cBritannia Shield\u201d, a defence system which would seek to protect Britain and its overseas bases from drone and missile attacks.<\/p>\n
Political opponents have accused the Conservatives of playing \u201cfantasy economics\u201d by understating the cost of their plans, which the Tories insist are fully funded.<\/p>\n
Questions also linger over the Tories\u2019 long-term commitment to the triple lock, which Prime Minister Mr Burnham has pledged to adjust in order to help fund a new national care service.<\/p>\n
Mrs Badenoch has said current Conservative policy is to keep the state pension guarantee but said it would be \u201cdifficult\u201d to commit to reinstating the policy if Labour changed or scrapped it.<\/p>\n
From Westminster to Washington DC – our political experts are across all the latest key talking points. Listen to the latest episode below…<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Play Brightcove video In the clearest sign yet of what a Badenoch government would look like, the Tory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-795208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}