BIRMINGHAM, England — Kemi Badenoch used her rare moment in the spotlight Wednesday to promise “a fight coming in British politics; a fight that we have not seen in this country for more than half a century.” Britain’s opposition Conservative leader, speaking at the close of her party’s annual conference in Birmingham, started as she meant to go on. She attacked Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s Labour Party and her right-wing rivals, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. It was a speech more about positioning the Tories in a five-party system than about policy.
What little she did announce was also about positioning. Badenoch’s flagship pledge was to abolish inheritance tax on a person’s main home, which is currently set at a threshold of £500,000 (or £1 million for a married couple). It will overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest families — but it’s part of Badenoch’s argument about being unashamedly Tory and pursuing growth.
On her own terms, and those of her members, Badenoch is seeing the conference as a success. This time last year her own party was muttering about her future; now it is united in pursuing a victory at the next general election. Whether she can achieve that victory is another question.
POLITICO’s Poll of Polls puts the Conservative Party on just 18% in a general election (due by 2029), beneath its historic low in 2024, and behind Reform on 22% and Labour on 26%. POLITICO crunched the five biggest takeaways as Tory conference closed. With most polls projecting a hung parliament, the shape of Britain’s next government could be decided by one thing: whether the Tories are willing — or able — to form a pact with the rival right-wing party Reform UK.
Badenoch’s speech suggests that they are neither — and made it personal. Badenoch, the first Black leader of a major U.K. political party, took aim at Reform politicians and outriders who have questioned if non-white Brits with foreign heritage can be classed as English. That is not the country we are … I am black.
I am proud of my country.” She added: “To those who say unite the right: We are not uniting with that.” At the same time, her party is clearly turning its head to middle-class “shire Tories” in the south of England who switched to the Liberal Democrats in 2024. Some of the key policies announced this week — such as state-subsidized childcare for workers earning more than £100,000 a year, and scrapping inheritance tax on multi-million-pound family homes — will benefit wealthier voters in London and the south. That is a very different voter coalition to the industrial heartlands in northern England, where low-income voters have turned to Reform.
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