KEMI BADENOCH: In the 1980s Britons were proud of their country, richer and happier. I want to make us like that again

By KEMI BADENOCH - LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION Published: 22:30, 20 July 2026 | Updated: 02:06, 21 July 2026 Yesterday, Andy Burnham was sworn in as Prime Minister. We are yet to hear his full policy proposals, but I'm getting a better sense of what he's about – and only 1 per cent of it is good. He clearly believes that working people are over-taxed – and capital (or 'wealth' as he calls it) is under-taxed. What he doesn't understand is that wealth must be created before politicians can distribute it. Like most socialists, he believes that people are wealthy because they have 'taken' more than their fair share of what is for the Government to hand out. He says that the State is too centralised, and that he will extend 'Manchesterism' to the wider country. Burnham has said that he believes some important industries, such as water, as well as, bizarrely, the National Lottery, should be nationalised, because he believes that the State is better at running these than the private sector. However, most importantly, he has said that he can solve the 'cost of living crisis' with a more activist State punishing the 'rich'. He is not just a little bit wrong with this analysis – he is 99 per cent wrong. Bad policies do not become permanent simply because Labour passed them. Not with me, writes Tory leader Kemi Badenoch A younger generation, who have never lived through the consequences of old-fashioned socialism, are about to discover why. The 'cost of living crisis' is the current expression for the failure of this country to improve its standard of living for nearly two decades. To give you context, our economy is performing worse than it has done in more than 200 years. Take-home pay, adjusted for direct taxes and inflation, is no higher that it was in 2008, the year of the global financial crisis. Why? Because the misguided policies of my predecessors and, more importantly, the anti-growth and anti-jobs policies of this Labour Government, have crushed our enterprise culture, our joie-de-vivre and our work-hard spirit. New and brilliant ideas, which anyone can have, used to be turned into new businesses. Not any more. Burnham is obsessed with repudiating Lady Thatcher. He seems unaware that under her, Britain created myriad new businesses; we created jobs in new industries, replacing more than all the lost jobs in old heavy, dangerous industries such as coal mining. But Margaret Thatcher and her government didn't create these jobs, ordinary people did. It's not government that creates growth, it's business. The government just provided an environment in which enterprise was rewarded, not punished. It loosened or abolished pointless regulations. And successful sectors – such as financial services – were liberated, admired and praised. But they weren't 'supported'. Successful sectors don't need 'supporting'. In fact, the City was a 'tax-rich' sector, largely because many of its employees were very highly paid and hence paid a lot of income tax (at 40 per cent, not 45 per cent). That's why the Conservatives' diagnosis of our cost-of-living crisis is the exact opposite of Andy Burnham's. We would get out of the way of enterprise, not nationalise it. We would massively reduce the regulations that hamper every sector of the economy, without taking away the vital rules that prevent exploitation. If we find an underperforming sector – and the water industry is one of those sectors – we would seek to understand the deep causes of underperformance and act to remedy them, rather than simply imposing knee-jerk nationalisation. In regulated monopolies, of which water is one, the solution often lies in better regulation, which, given the business experience in my Shadow Cabinet and my own experience as a former Secretary of State for Trade and Business, we can understand and guide. When Burnham's reckless experiment inevitably runs aground, we Conservatives will be ready. We have got a serious plan to get Britain working again. This is not an empty slogan, and I will keep making the case about why my position – the Conservatives' position – on this is right. For too long, Conservatives accepted Labour's settlement. Labour introduced bad ideas and, instead of reversing them, previous Conservatives merely tried to manage them better. When Burnham's reckless experiment inevitably runs aground, we Conservatives will be ready. We have got a serious plan to get Britain working again Not me. Net Zero is the clearest example. Targets imposed without regard to their extortionate cost have made energy more expensive, weakened our industry and left Britain more dependent on foreign powers. Under my leadership, Conservatives will abolish those targets and put reliable, affordable energy first. We will not stop there. We will reverse the attacks on business property relief, investment and aspiration. We will reverse Labour's tax on family farms. We will reverse Labour's spiteful tax on private schools that has resulted in fewer schools, fewer teachers and less money. Bad policies do not become permanent simply because Labour passed them. Not with me. Be optimistic knowing that the tide has run in one direction for too long and that we are going to turn it. But voters must be clear about the choice. None of this happens unless you vote Conservative. Umming and ahhing over other parties or talk of 'uniting the Right' will not deliver lower taxes or cheaper energy. It will deliver more Labour, more nationalisation and more Andy Burnham. I am an optimist, but I am not naive. I know exactly how to get Britain back on a growth path – it is not pie-in-the-sky, but a real, common-sense, practical plan, based on experience and evidence. A resumption of growth and a shrinking of the State would utterly transform our current malaise into pride and enthusiasm again. My older colleagues, who lived through the 1970s and 1980s, tell me that they couldn't believe the change in mood precipitated by Mrs Thatcher's premiership. In the 1980s, Britons were proud of their country, richer and happier. I'll make sure that every Briton rediscovers that national pride – if the electorate allows me to. So, I am sure you're wondering by now, what's the 1 per cent on which Andy and I actually agree? He's right that working people are overtaxed. I will reduce those taxes, too. Keir's on the beers! Starmer is seen at the pub with Reeves after leaving No10