KEMI BADENOCH: LABOUR’S ‘TERRIBLE’ BUDGET IS GOING TO DESTROY JOBS

CONSERVATIVE leadership contender Kemi Badenoch has claimed that Labour’s Budget will destroy jobs and lead to lower wages.

She also described the government as “Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour with Keir Starmer fronting it”.

Badenoch said on GB News: “What I’ve been talking about throughout this [leadership] contest is that we need to get back to first principles. We ended up talking about policy, policy without rooting it in principles.

“What is it that we believe in? We are a party that believes not just in business, but in real business, in entrepreneurialism. Small business in particular, is full of entrepreneurs, and this Budget is terrible for them.

“What they have done on employers’ NI is going to destroy jobs. It is going to lower wages. People will not see pay rises. Employment, disposable income, and salaries are all going to be lower than [they were] under the Conservatives.

“That is what the OBR, pretty much, has said. The OBR has basically said that Labour have chosen tax over growth.

“75% of employers’ NI is going to be passed on in lower wages. We need to start talking about how Labour is not trusting the private sector, not trusting business, and is actually going to damage the economy.”

Asked about the Conservative leadership contest, she said: “I do believe I am the person who can unite our party.

“What I have been saying up and down the country in those village halls and living rooms, all of the members events, is that people don’t understand what conservatism stands for anymore.

“We need authentic conservatism. We need confidence in our values, and we need a leader who is brave and courageous enough to actually say what needs to be said.

“For too long, people have said, ‘oh, there’s no difference between Conservatives and Labour. You’re all the same’. They are now going to find out what that difference is.

“This is not Tony Blair’s Labour. This is Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour with Keir Starmer fronting it.

“And that is going to be very clear to a lot of people who thought that they were going to get a benign Labour Party, but it’s coming after their pensions. It’s coming after their income. It’s coming after their businesses.”

She added: “Voting anything other than Conservative gives you Labour. You vote Liberal Democrat, you get Labour. You vote Reform, you get Labour

“We have a Labour super majority. We need to vote Conservative. That is the only way we will get our country back on track.”