Badenoch dominates Tory conference with inheritance tax pledge

Summarised from 5 outlets · 6 reports · Updated 7 Oct, 16:55 · Archive

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has pledged to abolish inheritance tax on main homes and positioned herself as central to her party's revival.

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, used her speech at the party's annual conference in Birmingham to announce a major policy: the abolition of inheritance tax on family homes. She pledged to raise the threshold to £500,000 for individuals and £1 million for married couples leaving their main home to direct descendants. Party officials said this would reduce the number of families paying inheritance tax by more than half and would be funded through reintroducing the two-child benefit cap and cutting out-of-work welfare payments and Universal Credit.

Badenoch positioned the announcement as part of a broader Conservative agenda to let people "keep more of what they earn". She accused Labour of being "addicted to welfare" and treating income and savings as "theirs to take and hand out". The speech was framed around the coming election as a "battle for the soul of the nation".

The Conservative Party currently polls at between 18 and 20 per cent, behind Labour on 26 per cent and Reform UK on 22 per cent. Badenoch used her speech to position the Tories as the main opposition to Labour in what she described as a five-party system, and to draw a clear distinction between the Conservatives and Reform.

A significant part of her address was devoted to attacking Reform UK and its leader Nigel Farage. Badenoch stated that the Conservatives would not copy Reform's approach or form deals with them. She spoke with evident emotion about rejecting what she described as ethno-nationalism, saying she did not want to live in a country run by people who debate whether her mixed-race children are English or who question whether black England football players are English.

During the conference, Badenoch has been the dominant figure, describing herself as the new "captain, coach and owner" of the Conservative Party in an interview with GB News. Some party members have expressed concern about the Conservatives becoming a one-woman party dependent on her popularity. Those close to Badenoch say her control extends to policy decisions made on her personal judgment rather than political calculation, and that attempting to talk her out of a decision is difficult.

On the polling front, the Conservatives have recovered some unity after a period of internal difficulty, with party members now united around pursuing a general election victory. However, the party remains significantly behind in the polls, with a general election due by 2029. Whether Badenoch can translate her current dominance and policy announcements into electoral success remains uncertain.

How it is being reported

• Would Kemi Badenoch make a better PM than Andy Burnham?The Conservative Party leader announced a major policy today during her speech.Daily Express · 7 Oct, 16:47
• Kemi Badenoch: 'Our drama queens have joined Reform'Kemi Badenoch has been outlining her policy proposals if her party were to form the next UK government.BBC Politics · 7 Oct, 16:38
• DAN HODGES: This was Kemi's best speech yet. She exploited glaring gaps in Labour policy, drew a crystal-clear line between the Tories and Reform - and delivered the most powerful anti-racism speech ever heard from a British party leaderLast year, when it looked as if the Tories were set to be overwhelmed by a collapse in their support and a polling surge towards Reform UK, Kemi Badenoch and her aides convened for a meeting.Daily Mail · 7 Oct, 16:34
• 5 takeaways from Kemi Badenoch’s fighty Tory conference speechThe Conservative leader aimed brickbats at Labour, Nigel Farage — and any attempt to “unite the right.” Now she just has to persuade some of the public to vote for her.Politico Europe · 7 Oct, 16:21
• All hail the Kult of Kemi – captain, coach and owner of the Conservatives | John CraceThe Tory leader is now too big for the party to allow her to fail, so everything she does is acclaimed a work of genius Where’s AI slop when you need it? It could all have been so much simpler. Just ask ChatGPT to write me a leader’s speech in the style of Kemi Badenoch. Make it an hour and 10 minutes long, so plenty of room for padding. Go heavy on the slogans, cliches and the obligatory crap politician jokes. Ones we’ve all heard many times before. Not least at this conference. Make the usual digs at Labour and put the boot in to Reform. The main aim of the speech is to try to reposition a…The Guardian · 7 Oct, 16:17
• ‘All me’: Tory party riding high on Kemi Badenoch’s wave of popularityAt Conservative conference, some worry about becoming a one-woman party, while others say party should thank their lucky stars they have her UK politics live – latest updates Kemi Badenoch has long said that the Conservatives were “under new management”, but in a TV interview to mark the end of a party conference at which she has been front and centre of more or less everything, she took the analogy further. “Your viewers will know that sometimes you have a football team that’s disappointing,” the Tory leader told GB News. “There’s a new captain, there’s a new coach, there’s a new owner…Guardian World · 7 Oct, 15:50

In this story: Kemi Badenoch · Andy Burnham · Nigel Farage · Conservative Party · Labour Party · Reform UK · Birmingham

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