Kemi Badenoch rebuffed calls for the Tories to merge with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in her first major speech this year.
The day after clashing with Sir Keir Starmer in the Commons, she also took a swipe at the Prime Minister and his “woman problem” with Chancellor Rachel Reeves who has faced criticism over her Budget, the soaring cost of Government borrrowing and fall in the Pound.
The Conservative leader admitted mistakes by the last Tory governments over Brexit as she promised if elected by the British public she would “give you your country back,” with echoes of the “take back control” slogan of Leavers.
Asked after her speech in London if the Tories under her leadership would merge with Reform, she responded: “Nigel Farage says he wants to destroy the Conservative Party. Why on earth would we merge with that?”
But she was grilled on her strategy of not announcing new policies as the Tories trail Reform who are now in second place narrowly behind Labour in the polls.
“Nigel Farage has been knocking around for 20 plus years. He’s been leading all sorts of different parties, so he has had a head start,” she said.
“I’ve been leading the Conservative Party for 10 weeks. Let’s see where we are in a few months and years.”
She pledged to work with Sir Keir on issues where she believed he was right.
Asked if she would support him if he axed Ms Reeves as Chancellor, despite no signs that he is planning to do so, Ms Badenoch said: “If he does the right thing with Rachel Reeves, I will also support him in that, but his ‘woman problem’ is not my concern.”
She was later challenged by a journalist over the relevance of Ms Reeves’s gender in her reply.
“Well, when she stood up in her Budget, she wanted everyone to know that she was the first female Chancellor,” she argued.
“I didn’t stand up here congratulating myself for being a female leader, or being a black leader.
“And that’s why when you open the door to those things, it means that people can comment on them.”
When it was suggested to her that her speech was depressing rather than upbeat, she responded: “We have just suffered our greatest ever defeat.
“I don’t think the public will start trusting us if I turn up looking like I’m having a great time and everything’s fantastic.”
On Brexit and immigration, she admitted Tory administrations had made mistakes, as she claimed governments had done for a generation.
“We announced that we would leave the European Union before we had a plan for growth outside the EU,” she said.
She added: “We announced year after year that we would lower immigration, but despite our efforts immigration kept going up.”
Net immigration to the UK hit 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
Promising “real plans rather than announcements”, Ms Badenoch said her party would “have to show how Conservatism improves the lives of British people” in order to regain the trust of voters.
She argued for a “more focused and efficient” State, and a more “resilient, secure and properous” Britain where “hard work is rewarded”.
The Tory leader added: “We believe that if you do right by your community, your family, your society, you will succeed.”
She stressed: “The Conservative Party is changing.
“We are under new leadership we are back in the service of the British people.
“We are going to give you your country back.”