Badenoch running a ‘grassroots campaign’ for Tory leader, ‘not a media campaign’

Kemi Badenoch has said she is running a “grassroots campaign” to be the next Tory leader rather than a “media campaign”, in an apparent swipe at her rival Robert Jenrick.

The two final candidates for the Conservative leadership have taken different approaches to the final leg of the race to succeed Rishi Sunak, with Mr Jenrick having made more public-facing speeches than his rival.

Both are expected to take part in televised debates, including on GB News on Thursday.

But Ms Badenoch insisted that despite her lower profile early in the race, she was going win.

“I think we are going to do this. I am not being complacent,” she told a virtual rally of Tory members held on the platform Teams.

The North West Essex MP added: “I am working hard, I am running a grassroots campaign, not a TV campaign or a media campaign. I am getting out there and I am looking forward to meeting many of you on the campaign trail.”

In a wide-ranging question and answer session with Tory members, she claimed Reform UK and the Lib Dems were “two sides of the same coin” when asked how she would regain voters for the Conservatives.

She insisted the Lib Dems had gained so many seats in Parliament because Reform had split the Tories’ vote, adding: “If we can get our vote back from Reform I think that would tackle quite a lot of the Lib Dem threat that we face. That means being confident Conservatives again.”

Ms Badenoch however said the party needed to “spread out and get the common ground back”, rather than “tack” in one particular political direction.

Elsewhere in the session, she told Tory members she was not against leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in order to tackle migration issues which have frustrated ministers.

But unlike Mr Jenrick, who has pitched the leadership contest as a “leave or remain” battle over the ECHR, she said there were pieces of UK law she would like to see reformed first.

Ms Badenoch said: “I think the Human Rights Act, for example, there is a lot that we can do there before looking at international treaties.

She also said there were problems with the Equality Act, which she described as largely a good piece of law, adding: “These are the legacies of (former prime minister Sir Tony) Blair’s constitutional settlement. We can unpick them.”

Mr Jenrick had earlier claimed in a speech in Westminster that returning the benefits bill to pre-pandemic levels would free up enough money for a 2p income tax cut.

Taking Margaret Thatcher as his example, the Conservative leadership hopeful argued for a small-state, lower-regulation Britain.

He said: “I am setting a simple target: we will bring the inactivity rate back down to its pre-pandemic level, bringing almost 500,000 people back into the workforce.”

Along with sacking 100,000 civil servants, replacing “failed” universities with “apprenticeship hubs” and reforming the planning system to build more houses, Mr Jenrick argued for “responsible” tax cuts funded by getting more people back into work.

Mr Jenrick also stressed the need to cut taxes “responsibly”, arguing the Liz Truss mini-budget had been a “damaging episode” as it had paired tax cuts with “massive spending” on support for energy bills – something he described as “the largest single welfare bailout, I think, in our country’s modern history”.

Conservative members have until October 31 to vote for their preferred leader, with the result announced on November 2.