Badenoch issues update on the Policy Renewal Programme | Conservative Home

The below is the full text of a letter – issued by Kemi Badenoch – providing an update on the Conservative Party’s policy development and her Renewal Programme:

Dear Colleague

Following my previous letter on 14th April, I wanted to update you on our policy work. At the last meeting of the 1922 Committee, colleagues asked for a summary of our policy announcements to use over recess. This is provided below.

I am grateful for the work that our Shadow Frontbench is doing, both launching immediate policy responding to events and the Government’s decisions, as well as supporting our long-term Policy Renewal Programme. Our Party must work together to talk about the good announcements that we have made and support one another in communicating these messages to the public.

We have announced plans to support our core vision of authentic conservativism across many areas of public policy. As the only political party unequivocally committed to standing up for the Union, our policies cover all of our United Kingdom.

All of our policies must be underpinned by a clear set of authentic Conservative principles:

• Freedom (of speech, of markets, of association)
• Pro-enterprise
• Personal responsibility
• Living within our means
• National interest before international interest
• Lower taxes and a smaller state
• Secure borders

Unlike any other party, our policy approach means telling hard truths and being serious about the challenges.

Taxation:

We have opposed Labour’s damaging tax rises on working people, leading the fight against Labour’s terrible Jobs Tax, which will hit employers, struggling businesses, charities, and public services. We have also committed to reversing this Labour government’s cruel and unnecessary taxes on ambition, including:

• Family Farms Tax, because we stand with farmers.
• Family Business Tax, because we stand with entrepreneurs.
• Education Tax, because we stand with parents.

Welfare:

We are clear that the spiralling welfare bill is unaffordable for British taxpayers. We have:

• Voted to defend the two-child benefit cap, because people on benefits should have to make the same choices as everyone else.
• Proposed reforms to bring welfare spending under control, including bringing back proper assessments to make sure only those that need benefits can access them.
• Called out wasteful spending on programmes within Motability, being clear that people should not get mobility payments for things like drug misuse, ADHD and obesity.

Immigration:

We have tabled the landmark ‘Deportation Bill’, which sets out a clear vision for border control under a Conservative Government, with tough, practical measures designed to end abuse, enforce the law, and put British interests first:

• Introducing a strict annual cap on migration – Ensuring migration levels are determined by the British people.
• Doubling the residency requirement for Indefinite Leave to Remain from five to ten years – with a further five years to gain a precious British passport. British citizenship is a privilege to be earned, not a right to be claimed.
• Creating new powers to revoke Indefinite Leave to Remain – Allowing us to remove those who have become a burden to the UK.
• Disapplying the Human Rights Act from all immigration-related matters – Preventing foreign nationals from exploiting our court system.
• Increasing the salary threshold for work visas to £38,700.
• Introducing powers to deport all foreign criminals – If you break the law here, you go home. No one who commits crime should be able to get Leave to Remain or citizenship.

Law and order:

We have taken a no-nonsense approach to law and order, refusing to allow criminals free reign and being clear that prison works:

• Forced Labour to U-turn on disgraceful plans for two-tier justice.
• Voted for tougher sentences for crimes like tool theft and fly tipping.
• Proposed stricter conditions in prisons, including arming prison officers.
• Called for police officers who enforce the law to be protected from witch hunts.

Conservatives respect our independent legal system, but we oppose the legal activism which see courts going in the opposite direction to the will of the elected Parliament.

Energy security:

The Conservatives have told the truth that the 2050 Net Zero target is impossible. Our work is underway, looking into how we can deliver cheap and clean energy, without bankrupting businesses, without eye-watering bills for households, and in a way which reduces our dependency on hostile or unstable countries.

We have opposed plans to force green targets on individuals and businesses:

• Voted against the Deposit Return Scheme, which will push up the prices of multipack goods.
• Pushed for a delay on the Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, which drives manufacturers to make electric cars.
• Supported Oil and Gas extraction in the North Sea, stopping us being dependent on foreign fossil fuels.
• Opposed the Energy Profits Levy, promising that a future Conservative Government will not have this levy but will instead back our energy industry to create jobs and growth.

Health and social care:

We have pushed for more money to reach the NHS frontline, calling out big bonuses for managers and warning Government to get a grip on ever-increasing pay demands.

We warned Labour that caving in and giving resident doctors a huge pay rise of 28.9% would only leave the militant BMA wanting more. In response to yet more strikes, we have announced plans to put patients first by legislating for minimum service levels and banning doctors from striking.

We stand with patients who deserve better services, not the militant unions demanding more payouts.

Supporting aspiration:

We back people who work hard, want to start a family and save up to do so.

More homes are needed but Labour’s flagship planning reforms will not work – they are building homes in the countryside and not in towns and cities where people want to live, and they are overriding local democratic consent by bypassing planning committees. We want to build more homes, in the right places, to support young families.

Our lawfare commission will also ensure we can prioritise homes for British people – we cannot continue a situation where British citizens are behind new immigrants in the queue to access social housing.

Education and protecting children:

We have opposed Labour’s terrible plans to overturn the cross-party consensus on school reform which has seen a huge rise in English school standards.

We have proposed policies to protect kids from poisonous social media. Instead of the hysteria around online radicalisation, we drew up new powers to ban smartphones in schools and restrict social media use for under 16s.

We have forced votes on the need for a national inquiry into child rape gangs, because we believe that the victims of this awful and national scandal deserve justice and deserve the truth. We forced the Government into a U-turn.

We continue to give a voice to those victims and be honest about the perpetrators, including voting for the full release of ethnicity data of sex offenders.

Pensioners:

This Labour government snatched Winter Fuel Payments from millions of the poorest pensioners. We voted consistently against this in the House of Commons, forcing a U-turn.

Labour also plans to make pensioners pay income tax on their pensions for the first time. We exposed their plans to do this and have tried to stop them.

Government efficiency and effectiveness:

Our Shadow Ministers are the only ones serious about limiting government spending and the size of the quango state:

• Proposed cuts to foreign aid, to spend on urgent priorities especially defence.
• Opposed new quangos like GB Energy and the football regulator, which create more costs and red tape.
• Warned against the nationalisation of successful bus and rail companies, which are being set up to fail at huge costs to taxpayers.

Personal freedoms:

We have vigorously defended important rights such as freedom of speech, thought, press and religion. We are the only Party which consistently votes for less, not more, intrusion:

• Laid out plans to abolish ‘non-crime hate incidents’. We shouldn’t have police spending time on investigating hurt feelings and perceived offensive language. Offensive language isn’t the same as illegal language – Conservatives will stop this practice.
• Opposed the ‘banter ban’ on speech in pubs. Labour are making pub landlords responsible for what punters say, forcing them to police speech. Conservatives will not support such restrictions on free speech and placing extra burdens on small businesses that is why we voted against this measure in the Employment Rights Bill.
• Voted against the smoking ban. Conservatives believe in personal responsibility, and not blanket bans.

Our Party defends common sense. That is why Conservatives have resisted the right-on dogma destroying our institutions:

• Held the BBC to account over their blatant bias, including for terrorist organisations like Hamas.
• Voted for changes to force public bodies to record biological sex not gender.
• Demanded the Supreme Court judgement on gender be duly reflected in policy and guidance, without delay.
• Called out racist hiring procedures and the use of positive discrimination.

Defending the national interest:

We believe in putting national interest before international interests:

• Opposing the £30bn Chagos Islands surrender
• Pushing Labour to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP in the next five years.
• Backing Ukraine to the hilt in their war against Russian aggression.
• Supporting Israel’s right to defend itself.
• Voting to crack down on Chinese solar panels that rely on modern slave labour.
• Opposing Labour’s plans to allow China to open a ‘super embassy’ in London.
• Supporting our soldiers with a new Armed Forces Housing Association.

We set out five clear tests to stop the Brexit betrayal and safeguard British sovereignty, secure our borders, and defend our fishing rights:

• No backsliding on free movement or compulsory asylum transfers.
• No new money paid to the EU.
• No reduction in our fishing rights.
• No rule taking, dynamic alignment or European Court jurisdiction.
• No compromise on the primacy of NATO as the cornerstone of European security.

When Labour’s EU Surrender clearly failed all these tests and sought to drag us back into old debates about Brexit, we pledged we would simply reverse their deal.

ECHR and lawfare:

We have been clear that if we need to leave the ECHR, we will. Learning from mistakes of the past, we will not be making announcements without doing the work to understand what the consequences would be and planning for them. Lord Wolfson of Tredegar KC, our Shadow Attorney General, has been asked to lead a policy commission in this area, reporting back at our 2025 Party Conference.

Conclusion:

Our Party will continue to develop these early positions over the coming months. But for these messages to land with the public, we must repeat them unashamedly. I urge you, whenever you are doing media on behalf of our Party or communicating with voters on social media, never to be afraid to take an authentically conservative position. If you have ideas for such positions that we could take, please speak to the relevant Shadow Secretary of State.

Thank you for your ongoing support in renewing our Conservative Party. Yours sincerely

Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP