It was a pleasure to welcome Kemi Badenoch to Norfolk last week. In a speech and answering questions, she set out the conservative principles that drive her leadership beginning with personal responsibility.
Winning back the trust of the British public is her priority as Leader of the Opposition and that means changing our approach and recognising a fundamental reset is needed of the state and our economy.
At the last election Labour said vote for us and all the problems you see will be fixed – they haven’t been. Now Reform says if only you get rid of Labour and Conservatives everything will be ok. This approach fails to recognise the scale of change needed to fix these problems and restore real opportunity.
That starts with the economy. In a recent speech the Shadow Chancellor, Mel Stride MP, set out that means putting stability first as the prerequisite for protecting the nation’s finances and keeping taxes low. Never again will we undermine fiscal credibility by making promises we cannot afford, as was seen with the 2022 mini-budget.
Our approach means rewiring the economy to see real improvements in growth and opportunity. As part of the Shadow Treasury team, I am involved in our policy review focusing on productivity and growth. We want to remove the barriers holding back enterprise, control spending, and reform public services and welfare.
Other parties don’t seem to have learned those lessons. Labour has fiddled the fiscal rules to borrow billions more – the Chancellor’s plans will add £80 billion to our debt interest bill over this Parliament alone. Or take Reform’s magic money tree approach which wants major increases in welfare spending – paid for by working people - when the budget is unsustainable. But also promises tax cuts with no serious plan for how to pay for any of it.
After her visit to Norfolk, Kemi delivered an important speech on reforms to human rights law. People are rightly frustrated by legal rulings that undermine democratic decisions on immigration and many other areas. Rather than a rule of law, too often we have rule by lawyers stopping elected politicians acting.
So our lawfare commission will look at fixing this setting five tests where a government must be able to act.
One, the Deportation Test. Can we take back control of our asylum system so Parliament — not international courts — decides who comes here and who stays? We must be able to remove foreign criminals and illegal immigrants to their home country or elsewhere.
Two, the Veterans Test. Can we stop our veterans being endlessly pursued by vexatious legal attacks? And can we make sure our military can fight a future war without one hand tied behind their backs?
Three, the Fairness Test. Can we put British citizens first when it comes to social housing and public services because those who have paid in should be front of the queue, especially when resources are limited.
Four, the Justice Test. Can we make sure prison sentences actually reflect Parliament's intentions?
And finally, the Prosperity Test. How can we make sure we can prevent endless legal challenges for our infrastructure projects so we can actually get things built?
These are basic tests of whether we are sovereign as a country and where international treaties block us and cannot be reformed then we will leave them. But we will have a proper plan to do so.
