Badenoch speaking at major right-wing summit as Reeves’s budget ‘risks biggest layoffs in decade’: Live

Kemi Badenoch has indicated her support for increasing Britain’s spending on defence, saying a failure to do so “is not peacemaking, it is weakness”.

“It only emboldens their threats to democracy and global stability”, Mrs Badenoch told the ARC conference in London.

She added: “So how do we defend? The Conservatives are the guardians of Western civilisation. We do need to defend what we have, but many have forgotten how to do so.”

Her remarks come just hours before Sir Keir Starmer joins European leaders for emergency talks in Paris as they scramble for a strategy in response to Donald Trump’s push for a deal with Vladimir Putin and fears the US will reduce its defence commitments in the continent.

Sir Keir announced he was willing to put British troops “in harm’s way” on the ground in Ukraine in the event of any ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow, and pledged an increase in defence spending.

Kemi Badenoch has dubbed diversity policies and climate activism “the real poison of left-wing progressivism”.

Giving a speech which saw her argue that “western civilisation is in crisis”, the Tory leader claimed: “We are distracted, too busy critiquing and deconstructing what previous generations built, rather than making sure that the very best of our inheritance is left intact for the next generation.

“This is the real poison of left wing progressivism, whether it’s pronouns or DEI [diversity, equality and inclusion] or climate activism – these issues aren’t about kindness, they are about control.

“We have limited time, and every second spent debating what a woman is a second lost from dealing with these challenges.”

Western civilisation is in crisis, Kemi Badenoch has warned, claiming there is now a “hatred of Western history and culture”.

Speaking at the right-wing Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in London, alongside right-wing Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, the Conservative leader claimed there is a “crisis of confidence” in the Western World.

This, she claimed, “manifests as an embarrassment of the West’s legacy” and a “hatred of Western history and even its culture”.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK’s Nigel Farage are set to vie for attention at a major gathering of right-wing leaders.

Badenoch will give a speech at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference this morning.

ARC was co-founded in 2023 by the Canadian psychologist and self-help author Jordan Peterson.

Farage is set to be interviewed by Peterson on stage on Tuesday.

About 4,000 people from 96 countries are due to attend this year, compared with 1,500 last year.

Among those attending include Republican house speaker Mike Johnson, and Vivek Ramaswamy.

The NHS is on the “road to recovery”, ministers claimed after meeting a pledge to deliver two million extra appointments.

Sir Keir Starmer said the Government knows “the job isn’t done” and promised further reforms to deliver faster treatment.

NHS England figures showed that between July and November 2024 there were almost 2.2 million more appointments compared with the equivalent period in 2023.

Some 62 per cent of the additional activity was made up of outpatient appointments, 26 per cent diagnostic tests and 12 per cent elective operations.

The extra NHS appointments, delivered in part by extra evening and weekend working, means Labour’s manifesto commitment for two million a year was met seven months early.

The Prime Minister said: “This isn’t just about numbers. It’s about the cancer patients who for too long were left wondering when they’ll finally start getting their life-saving treatment.

“It’s about the millions of people who’ve put their lives and livelihoods on hold – waiting in pain and uncertainty as they wait for a diagnosis.

Voters consider Reform UK more trustworthy than the Tories, a poll revealed.

A YouGov survey showed that just 11 per cent of voters believe the Tories are trustworthy.

This was compared to 19 per cent saying Reform were trustworthy, according to Sky News.

A survey has found that confidence among small businesses hit its lowest recorded level outside the pandemic in the final quarter of last year.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said its survey of almost 1,400 firms found that those in accommodation and food services were the least optimistic.

Tina McKenzie, of the FSB, said: “The fourth-quarter blues reported by small firms underline how urgently the government’s growth push is needed. Small firms are understandably nervous about their prospects as 2025 gets underway.”

Wes Streeting has said it is “premature” to talk about how many British troops could be sent to Ukraine after Sir Keir Starmer said he was prepared to send a peacekeeping force if there is a deal to end the war with Russia.

The health secretary told Times Radio: “The prime minister will be travelling to France to meet with other European Nato leaders to discuss what is a once-in-a-generation moment for the collective security of our continent, which isn’t just about the future of Ukraine, it is an existential question for Europe as a whole.

“That’s why the gathering today is important. Next week, he’ll be travelling to Washington to meet with President Trump, no doubt relaying the outcome of some of those discussions today.”

Asked what the scale of a potential peacekeeping force could be and if the Government would be prepared to carry out a recruitment drive, he said: “I think it’s premature to be talking about numbers.”

He reiterated plans to be “on a path to 2.5 per cent” when asked if spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence was the limit or if the government could go higher.