Tories will tell difficult truths, Badenoch to say in bid to regain voter trust

The Tories will tell the British people the truth “even when it’s difficult to hear”, Kemi Badenoch will pledge in a major speech focused on regaining voters’ trust.

The Conservative leader is also expected to criticise the Labour Party for having announced “mad and bad ideas on snatching winter fuel and taxing family farms”, which Mrs Badenoch insists the Tories rejected “time and time again” in government.

In her first major speech of 2025, Mrs Badenoch will on Thursday signal that she will continue to be outspoken in her language as she leads the Conservative party, just days after she came under fire for blaming “peasants” from “sub-communities” in foreign countries for the grooming gangs crisis.

After stressing the Conservatives are under new leadership, Ms Badenoch will say: “For the next four years and beyond we are going to be telling the British people the truth, even when it’s difficult to hear.

“The truth about the mistakes we made, the truth about the problems we face, and the truth about the actions we must take to get ourselves out of this mess.”

Speaking to GB News earlier this week, the Tory leader said it was important to examine the backgrounds of those implicated in the grooming gangs scandal, adding they were “people with a very poor background, a sort of peasant background, very, very rural, almost cut off from even the home origin countries that they might have been in”.

Asked by reporters on Wednesday if she was right to make the claim, her spokesman was resolute she was not at fault.

He said: “Quibbling over language is what got us into this mess in the first place. We need to end this culture of fear, this fear of being politically incorrect, and that is why we need a national inquiry, because too many people don’t want to talk about this stuff.”

Elsewhere in her speech, Mrs Badenoch will claim Labour is struggling in Government because it has announced policies without a plan to back them up.

“When you haven’t worked out what you’re going to do in opposition, you will accept whatever you’re given in government,” she will say, adding: “That’s why Rachel Reeves announced mad and bad ideas on snatching winter fuel and taxing family farms.

“Those options were presented to us, time and time again by officials, and we rejected them time and time again because they would hurt so many people for so little benefit.”

The public will never trust politicians unless they accept their mistakes, Mrs Badenoch will say while seeking to contrast herself with the Prime Minister.

She is expected to say: “Labour are making a lot of mistakes. But the difference between me and Keir Starmer is that he doesn’t believe he’s ever made a mistake.

“I will acknowledge the Conservative Party made mistakes.”

The Tory leader has previously said she does not plan to announce a policy platform in her early days of stewarding the party, but will instead focus on regaining voters’ trust.

Labour chairwoman Ellie Reeves accused Ms Badenoch of “doing the exact opposite” of rebuilding public trust in the party by offering nothing in opposition but more “infighting” and “unfunded spending commitments.”

“The public rightly lost trust in the Conservatives after 14 long years of failure in government,” she said.

She accused Ms Badenoch of offering “another speech, but no apology for her role in Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-Budget that crashed the economy and left a £22 billion black hole in the public finances”.

“The Conservatives under Kemi Badenoch have nothing to offer in opposition apart from recklessly continuing to make unfunded spending commitments and overseeing yet more Conservative chaos and infighting. The Tories haven’t listened and they haven’t learned,” Ms Reeves said.

“This Labour Government is getting on with delivering our plan for change to grow our economy and put more money in people’s pockets, build an NHS fit for the future, make streets safer, deliver clean energy and increase opportunity for all.”

Published: 16/01/2025 by Radio NewsHub