Badenoch vows to ban doctors from striking and slash taxes at Tory conference: Live

Kemi Badenoch has promised to ban doctors from going on strike, telling the Tory party conference: “Enough is enough”.

She said the Conservative Party is developing “detailed plans to make things work better” across Britain’s public services.

“In the NHS, industrial action has kept waiting lists high for far too long. Enough is enough. We will ban doctors from going on strike”, she said.

Kemi Badenoch has promised to cut the civil service back to the size it was before Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic if the Tories win the next election, saying that “fixing the state is next in our blueprint”.

“Since Brexit and Covid, the size of the civil service has swollen by over a third. There are now more than half a million civil servants.

“And have you noticed this government working a third better for you? I don’t think so.

“So we are going to reverse this. We are going to cut the civil service back to where it was in 2016.”

Our political editor David Maddox writes:

The Tory leader has said she will reverse the family farm tax, the VAT on private school fees, the family firm tax and the employment rights legislation.

But the big ticket item which many believe is killing the economy is the national insurance rise on employer contributions.

It has suppressed wages and reduced job vacancies. But the Tories know they cannot promise to reverse this because it will cost £20bn for the economy.

Kemi Badenoch has taken aim at Shabana Mahmood, casting doubt over the home secretary’s “newfound tough image”.

Speaking about the Labour home secretary – who is seen as a rising star in the party – The Tory leader said: “We have got the measure of them conference. Just look at Shabana Mahmood, the new home secretary, she’s tried to convince us that she’s tough…. right…

“I remember when Shabana Mahmood tried to stop foreign criminals being deported – do you remember that Rob? I remember when she laid down on the ground in front of a Sainsbury’s protesting because they were selling food from Israel. So forgive me if I treat this newfound tough image with a little scepticism.”

Kemi Badenoch has taken a swipe at “weak” Sir Keir Starmer’s government, listing the resignations and sacking of various Labour ministers in the last year.

“An anti-corruption minister under investigation for corruption,” she said. “A homelessness minister who made her own tenants homeless.

“A housing secretary sacked for dodging housing taxes.” She then referred to Lord Mandelson’s resignation as ambassador to the U.S.

Labour is “everything wrong” with politics, the Tory leader claims, and is destroying business and piling debt onto future generations.

She says the “November budget of doom” will “give us all something to cry about” with higher taxes, and that businesses such as BMW and Merck are pulling investment from the UK.

Our political correspondent Millie Cooke says:

Kemi Badenoch is attempting to remind members who the Tory party is, after a lacklustre first year in office where its narrative has entirely failed to cut through with voters.

Admitting that the party “didn’t always fight hard enough for what we believed in”, she said the Tories must “remember who we are fighting for”.

“We are fighting for people who work hard and do the right thing”, she said. “We are fighting for people who ask, ‘why do sickness benefits pay more than the minimum wage, more than the living wage even’.

“We are fighting for small business owners, people who take risks and get things done. We are fighting for the victims of crime, that want to know we are on their side ,that criminals will face the full force of the law.

“We are fighting for the farmers putting food on our tables. These are our people conference, they are the backbone of our country. We fought for them before and we will fight for them again.”

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell says:

It was only ever going to be die-hard Kemi Badenoch fans who hung out in Manchester until her conference speech.

So it is no surprise that she is on her second standing ovation of the speech.

The Tory leader called on her party to remember “who we are fighting for”, mentioning farmers among others. The room erupted in cheers and those in the room got to their feet.

Kemi Badenoch said that she wants “brilliant minds and great talents” to come to the UK, but at the moment hundreds of thousands are coming with “no skills at all”.

“This broken immigration model is heaping pressure on our public sector,” she says.

Referring to Labour’s ‘one-in-one-out’ immigration deal with France, she said this “ends up letting 100 people in, for every one who leaves”.

Referring to the action taken by previous Conservative governments on education and employment, Badenoch says the party is fighting for hard-working people, such as small business owners, and victims of crime.

“We fought for them before, and we will fight for them again,” she adds.

Kemi Badenoch made a trans jibe while attempting to make the case for a more economically ambitious country.

The gender-critical Tory leader said: “Britain is stagnating while the world around us moves on. We are competing with restless and ambitious countries around the world.

“We are competing with a billion people in India striving to become middle class. We are competing with economic success stories like Poland….

“While Britain was redefining what a woman is, China was building five nuclear reactors.”

Our political editor David Maddox says:

In a world of social media posts, soundbites and off the cuff politics, Kemi Badenoch is using her speech to make the case for a more reasoned rational form of politics.

Her leadership has always been about making the case for policies rather than starting with the policies and finding the rationale later.

Her problem is that this “stronger borders, stronger economy” step by step approach requires time. And Ms Badenoch may not have much of that left.