Kemi Badenoch declares herself a ‘classic old school Conservative’

Kemi Badenoch rejects 'nasty party' label over benefit cuts

She called the 100-pager 'The Right Way', setting out her guiding principles.

When looking at the UK's opinion polls, Tories still trail Labour and Reform UK. It has been over a year since their worst-ever general election result in 2024.

She told the BBC: "I believe in common sense, people working hard and being rewarded for that effort."

Welfare, she added, should be "a safety net, not a lifestyle."

Why Kemi Badenoch is going after Reform UK

Badenoch's personal poll ratings run ahead of her party's, and she used the interview to take aim at her rivals.

She called Reform leader Nigel Farage a "grumpy grandpa", and Labour's Andy Burnham "the cheesy uncle who does all the dad jokes".

On the other hand, she cast herself instead as a "no-nonsense mum".

The jibe follows warnings that Reform is "waging war on what Britain is", coming as Reform's £72m donation haul keeps fuelling Tory nerves and the threat the party poses.

Badenoch was asked if her benefit cuts and prison-building plans marked a return to the party's old "nasty party" image, rejecting the label outright.

"It's the common sense party. That's what we're doing," she said.

"And, quite frankly, if we were doing so well the old way, then why did we have such a terrible issue in 2024?"

What does Badenoch's essay The Right Way actually say?

The essay echoes Margaret Thatcher's 1976 essay, The Right Approach.

It argues the last Conservative government lost its way because it never settled on what it stood for.

"We did little to reverse the structural changes Labour had made which took the country in the wrong direction. The result was that the state grew by stealth," the essay says.

What is the Conservatives' plan for growth?

• Cut taxes and reduce regulation on business
• Shrink the civil service back to its pre-pandemic size
• Build growth on the principle that "business, not government, creates growth"

The essay insists the next government needs "people prepared to say no" to popular causes.

Parties, it warns, "need to recruit those who have the stomach to say no to good causes when the resources simply are not there to do everything."