As Badenoch focuses on economy today, Conservatives spy an opportunitypublished at 10:08 BST
Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent, at the conference
A “golden rule” – that’s what we are told Kemi Badenoch will unveil in her big
speech today.
It
says that for every pound a Conservative government saves (that’s to say cuts),
at least half would go on paying down the national debt.
The
thing is, one of the themes of this conference has been that the
possibility of a Conservative government feels pretty remote right now, and
that’s not just because the next general election is probably almost four years
away.
It’s
also because the Conservatives went down in their worst defeat ever 15 months
ago, and since then – mostly under Badenoch’s leadership – things have only got
worse.
Yet
in that bleak landscape, some Conservatives spy a slight opportunity.
They
believe that despite Liz Truss’s brief and chaotic tenure as prime minister,
the Conservatives’ reputation as the party of economic discipline and sound
money remains surprisingly robust.
They believe that this will only be
bolstered by the difficult economic decisions the government is facing at the
Budget, while Reform UK has, on some issues such as welfare, moved in a
bigger-spending, bigger-state direction.
That’s
why Badenoch will focus on the economy today.
