The Conservative Party Conference is wrapping up in Birmingham with the speech by party leader Kemi Badenoch. Her objective at this meeting was to put the Tories on their front feet to take on both Labour and Reform. The reaction of the attendees suggests that she has the party faithful behind her. The real audience, the British electorate, may not be as easily convinced. So, Ms. Badenoch got out the ghost of Margaret Thatcher, promising a return to the good old days of the 1980s. The question is whether the voters want to go back 40 years.
On taxes, she is cutting the inheritance tax, something near and dear to Tory hearts for decades if not longer. She does not want anyone to have to sell the family home (not even a massive estate) upon the death of the owner. She also wants to let couples leave an extra million quid to the next generations. The Thatcher Estate got out of paying inheritance tax by donating the old girl’s papers to the government. Perhaps, Ms. Badenoch could find a way to give everyone that kind of break.
On managing the economy, she wants to cut spending and use half of the savings to reduce the budget deficit. She will cut regulations because, as she sees it, government is in the way of businesses hiring and business growth. Also, she promised “tough love” for those who are out of work longer than six months. She sounds like Norman Tebbit telling 4 million unemployed Brits to “get on yer bike and look for work.”
On inter-party politics, she claimed the era of political drama has ended, but that remains to be seen. She bashed Labour saying they are “making every single person in this country poorer.” She attacked Reform UK saying their voters deserve better, and the Tories will provide it. In an odd compliment by omission, she claimed Reform were the fourth party in the UK, leaving one to wonder if the Liberal Democrats or the Greens are third.
In all, the conference hall was cheering, but it feels like Ms. Badenoch is playing the greatest hits from the past. Reform exists because the Conservatives were not populists under Mrs. Thatcher and her successors. It was, despite the PM herself, a collection of Oxbridge lads leading and the post-Falklands patriots following. Now that populism has a party of its own, it is hard to say if this retread is going to get off the ground.
This just might be the time for Prime Minister Andy Burnham to strike by calling an election. The Tories have halted their slide, but Reform still have substantial support. Ms. Badenoch said that there would not be any uniting of the right, that she would refuse to cooperate with Reform. When the opposition is split, going to the country is strategically sound. The only trouble with that is that the left may well be divided, too. It is hard to see Labour holding its massive majority, although it could well win a reduced majority,
Ms. Badenoch has achieved one very important thing in the last while, and the conference capped it. She is the leader of the party; for better or worse, it is hers.