𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Kemi Badenoch used her moment in the national spotlight to portray herself as the warrior who brought down Sir Keir Starmer and will make families across Britain better off by axing inheritance tax on their family homes. She is the undisputed master of her party and she addressed the faithful in Birmingham with utter confidence. Here are five messages she drove home.

The Conservatives may be out of power and behind in the polls, but Mrs Badenoch has no doubt the party has a message that will connect with worried voters – the country is running out of money, but you will be better off under the Tories at key moments in your family’s life. Stamp duty will be scrapped, there will be no mansion tax and – as confirmed in her speech – inheritance tax will not be charged on a family home.

Yes, the Conservatives will tackle anxieties about crime and national defence, but she knows millions of Britons will sit up and listen if she has a credible message about protecting their livelihoods.

Mrs Badenoch unleashed weapons-grade venom in the direction of Nigel Farage’s party, portraying its MPs as unfit for government. “To those who say unite the Right, we are not uniting with that,” she spat out. She quipped that the Conservatives had enjoyed an “export boom” with its “drama queens” going to Reform.

The Tory leader road-tested lines we can expect to hear repeatedly in the run-up to the next election. The Tories will portray the PM as a hapless and deluded leader whose refusal to grasp urgent challenges is a danger to Britain. She told the hall: “The last thing this country needs is a Paddington Bear prime minister, hoping that the problems go away, while Putin attacks our allies, while our economy flatlines.”

While the polls show that her favourability ratings have soared, the Conservative Party has a long and hard slog ahead of it as its fights to regain the trust of the public. She warned: “People are looking through the shop window, they like what they see, but let’s be honest, not enough of them are buying yet. We need to fix that.”

Before Mrs Badenoch stepped on stage, a video was played of her zingers at Prime Minister’s Questions, setting the narrative that she ended Sir Keir’s career as prime minister. This is important for grassroots morale – the party may have lost legions of MPs and councillors, but she has toppled a landslide-winning PM. If she can do that in two years, the logic goes, who knows what will be possible by the time of the next election.