Kemi Badenoch needs to place Britain’s decline into reverse | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Britain dangers turning into a “country of people on benefits, living in social housing” if the dream of a property-owning democracy dies on Labour’s watch, in keeping with Kemi Badenoch. The Conservative chief doesn’t consider Labour will hit its goal of constructing 1.5million new houses earlier than the following election and warns {that a} UK the place folks can’t personal a house of their very own is a “nation in decline”.

The 45-year-old is spoiling for fights with Labour on a bunch of points in 2026 and can put the get together’s pledge to scrap stamp responsibility on the coronary heart of her message to voters in May’s native elections.

Describing how she needs the Tories to be the get together of “hope”, she says: “Conservatives don’t accept decline. We reverse decline.”

Rescuing dwelling possession is vital to Britain’s future, she argues, saying: “I want to see our country go from strength to strength. We are a beacon of shining light in the world and we must continue to be so.

“That means having policies which will grow the economy and help people get on the housing ladder. That’s why I want to see us abolish stamp duty.

“Stamp duty is a terrible tax… Get rid of it.”

The Tory chief will open up an extra dividing line with Labour by mountain climbing stress on the Government to drag out of the European Convention on Human Rights.

She has “no confidence” that Labour will safe reforms to the Convention and insists pulling out is important to sort out unlawful immigration.

“There’s one thing we need to do to control our borders and that is leave the ECHR,” she says. “I didn’t rush to that conclusion. I made sure I did my homework, looked through all of the issues.

“We went through the legal papers. As long as we’re in the ECHR, we’re going to find it very difficult if not impossible to properly control our borders. Labour don’t want to leave the ECHR; Conservatives do.”

She solutions rapidly when requested her high mission for 2026, saying: “Winning the trust of the public back again. The Conservative party lost trust last year.

“Next year we want to win that back, show people we are in it for the right reasons – public service and to just get Britain working again.”

When requested about her private resolutions for 2026 she is equally swift: “My New Year’s Resolution is to eat more healthily. I’ve eaten very badly this year – lots of junk.”

She predicts Labour can be a “one-term” Government however there is no such thing as a assure voters will swing again to the Conservatives. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has topped the polls for months.

Mrs Badenoch has a easy pitch to younger folks with conservative convictions who’re questioning whether or not to throw of their lot with the Tories or Reform UK, claiming hers is the true “party of the Right”.

“What I would say to them is that hype comes and hype goes,” she says. “The reason why the Conservative party has been around for 200-plus years is because we are the real deal and we do this because we are people who believe in doing the right thing; who want to maintain our country’s values; who want to maintain standards and principles; who want public service. If you want to change your country, join the Conservative party.

“If you want to a make a lot of noise, there are many other parties you can go to but as we’ve seen with Labour you won’t get to deliver any change.”

Mrs Badenoch says there are already indicators of Tory revival.

“People are listening to us now,” she insists. “They weren’t listening to us after last year’s defeat.

“We’d just been in office 14 years; many people voted for change and they don’t like what they’ve got. They’ve got change for the worse so they are looking again at Conservatives.”

In the months forward she plans to make frequent trigger with Labour MPs who need to derail Justice Secretary David Lammy’s plans to curtail jury trials.

“We think we’ve found enough Labour rebels,” she says. “The right to jury trials is an ancient right…

“It’s not something which David Lammy should be scrapping just to deal with a minor administrative problem.”

Mrs Badenoch doesn’t conceal her loathing of Labour and sees get together politics at play in adjustments to funding preparations so more money is predicted to go to city and disadvantaged councils.

“They are taking away money from councils in rural areas which tend to vote Conservative and they are giving to the cities,” she claims. “They have changed the formula so they can give it to Labour-voting areas and that’s terrible.”

Sir Keir Starmer’s get together, she says, is “very bad for the countryside”. She has campaigned to scrap taxes on household farms and companies, she provides, as a result of “we need to make sure we give people some hope”.

This is the place she sees a spot in a crowded political market.

“I want people to see the Conservative party as the party that is providing hope,” she says. “We are the only ones doing real Opposition to Labour.

“No other party is opposing them… We are the ones who are holding them to account and getting them to u-turn.”

She dismisses options Labour’s woes might be circled by the arrival of, for instance, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham as chief.

“They are all turkeys,” she says of Sir Keir’s potential successors.

Recent Ipsos polling discovered 32% of individuals had been prone to take into account voting Conservative on the subsequent basic election. This was lower than for Reform (36%) however greater than for the Liberal Democrats (29%) or the Greens or Labour (each 26%). In November final 12 months, when folks had been requested whether or not they would favor Sir Keir or Mrs Badenoch as PM, the Labour chief had an 11 level lead; this month she was one level forward.

Her latest performances within the House of Commons have been freewheeling and ferocious.

“I’ve always enjoyed it but I don’t think it showed until more recently,” she says. “I was trying lots of different things at Prime Minister’s Questions and I started off trying to actually get answers – now I don’t expect him to answer questions any more.”

Her ambitions go far past scoring factors in opposition to a struggling Labour get together. She needs to steer her get together again onto the Government benches.

“I’m working to make sure that Conservatives can be on the Government side again, not just on the Opposition side,” she says. “We can do good things when we’re in Government again.”