Badenoch pledges tax cuts for young workers and family homes, rules out Reform deal

Kemi Badenoch used the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham to set out a package of tax cuts and to close the door on any post-election deal with Reform UK. In broadcast interviews and her closing speech, the Conservative leader said that if a general election produced a hung parliament she would rather send voters back to the polls than enter government with Nigel Farage's party. She pointed to 1974, when Britain held two elections in a year, and said the choice between dealing with Reform and not being in government was a false one. She accused Reform of being 'neck-deep in scandal' and said joining forces with it would mean 'one problem after another'.

The main employment policy she announced was a cut to employers' national insurance for workers aged 21 to 24. The party described it as halving the jobs tax for young people. Badenoch said the money had been found last year through a first jobs bonus, but that the bonus could not work if young people were not getting a first job. She rejected calls to cut employers' national insurance for all workers, saying savings had to be found first and that young people faced a worse problem than others. Shadow welfare secretary Helen Whately said the measure would be funded from £71 billion of identified savings, including welfare savings, and argued that Labour's employment costs had made hiring young people riskier. She also set out plans to cut red tape, review student loan interest, double apprenticeships and scrap stamp duty.

In her closing speech, Badenoch promised that the next Conservative government would legislate so that nobody pays inheritance tax on their family home. Couples would be allowed to pass on an extra £1 million inheritance tax-free on top of the home exemption, a package the party says is a £6 billion tax cut. She also repeated pledges on stamp duty and said there would be no mansion tax. Opponents said the inheritance tax plan would help a wealthy minority; the Conservatives said it would support economic growth. The party says its tax promises can be paid for from £71 billion of savings, with half of every pound saved going towards cutting the deficit. Broadcast analyses noted that the figures are large and would be difficult to deliver.

Much of the speech was directed at Reform. Badenoch mocked Conservative defectors and Reform figures, saying the party had seen an 'export boom of drama queens going to reform'. She referred to politicians who had once been 'measuring up the curtains for number 10' and said some were now 'measuring up the curtains for their prison cells'. She cited allegations and controversies around Reform, including a £5 million personal gift to Nigel Farage and a convicted fraudster who calls himself Posh George and calls Farage 'Daddy'. She told delegates that Reform MPs were 'openly questioning people's identity' and said: 'They are not like us. We are not like them. We are different. We are the Conservative Party.' She also said she did not want to explain to her son that some people do not think black England footballers are English, and described herself as black, British and proud. The no-deal line drew a slower ovation than other passages, reflecting continuing disagreement inside the party about whether the right should unite.

Badenoch faced repeated questions about the party's position. Polling suggests the Conservatives are below their disastrous general election result, with only about one in five voters backing them. In one interview she was asked whether the conference was in denial. She replied that the party was going back to first principles and that 'we are not out of the woods yet'. She argued that British politics is now in a multi-party era, that current polling points to a hung parliament, and that she expected another election immediately after any such result. She said the Conservatives were the only credible alternative to Labour.

The conference also sought to put flesh on the youth jobs offer. Helen Whately said one million young people were not in employment, education or training and that 174,000 more young people were unemployed under Labour. She said the welfare system could deter people from working and that face-to-face assessments should return. The Conservatives have not said they would reverse the whole of the government's national insurance increase for employers, arguing that their commitments must be costed and fiscally credible.

Before the speech, the party briefed that Badenoch would describe a 'battle for the soul of the nation'. She was expected to say that the country was running out of money and that spending money it did not have on things it could not afford was 'not kind' but 'reckless'. The phrase has been used by other politicians, including Joe Biden and Keir Starmer, and the party framed the speech around a 'right way' slogan. The core argument was that restoring confidence in the public finances is the foundation of economic growth.