Tory conference 2025 live: Under pressure Badenoch takes stage for first conference speech as leader

The Independent’s political correspondent Millie Cooke reports:

This year’s Conservative Party conference is about a “return to values that defined our country at its best”, Kemi Badenoch has said, promising that her party is “ready to earn the trust of the British people again”.

She added: “But I didn’t say it would be easy. I didn’t say it would be quick. Nothing really worth doing is. Anyone who tells you there are easy answers to the questions this country faces is either lying to you or lying to themselves.”

“We have plenty of reasons to be cheerful. As one of my great predecessor’s Margaret Thatcher put it: ‘The facts of life are conservative'”.

Kemi Badenoch has said the Conservatives would introduce a “reset” if they were to get into power at the next general election.

She told the Tory Party conference a government under her would be “politics done differently, politics done properly”.

Kemi Badenoch has claimed “extremism has gone unchecked” in Britain.

Speaking at the Tory Party conference, she told attendees: “We have tolerated this in our country for too long.”

The Independent’s political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports:

Kemi Badenoch opened her conference speech by praising Manchester as a city defined by free enterprise and entrepreneurialism.

“Conservatives love Manchester,” the Tory leader said.

It will not be lost on Mancunians, however, that the Conservatives came here two years ago for their party conference and scrapped the northern leg of HS2, which would have connected Manchester to London.

The city’s mayor Andy Burnham also had high profile clashes with the past Conservative government when Boris Johnson plunged it into tier 3 lockdown restrictions.

Kemi Badenoch has opened her Tory Party conference speech by speaking about the terror attack at a synagogue in Manchester this week.

She described the “horrific and despicable” attack as an attack on the idea that Britain is a safe place for Jews”.

Kemi Badenoch has taken to the stage for her first Conservative Party conference speech as leader of the party, as she faces increasing pressure to upturn the Tories’ fortunes amid dire poll ratings.

Conservative members have gathered in Manchester as the party’s four-day conference kicks off on Sunday.

Giving her welcome speech on Sunday afternoon, the Conservative leader will pledge to use a special task force to deport 750,000 illegal immigrants from the UK.

Nigel Farage is a “socialist”, the newspaper columnist and former Labour candidate Matthew Syed has told the Conservative party conference.

Mr Syed, who announced he had joined the Conservatives last month, said: “Reform UK is described as right-wing, I want to suggest to you that this shows how far British politics has swung to the left.

“I do not believe Nigel Farage is a racist. But I do believe, based on what he has said, that he is a socialist.

“Have you seen what he is saying? He wants to nationalise the commanding heights of the British economy, remove the two-child limit, indulge in other other giveaways of stunning profligacy. These proposals, look at them, are way to the left economically of the Corbyn-McDonnell manifesto of 2017.”

Mr Syed, a former Olympic table tennis player, said he disagreed with the Tory government’s energy bailout in 2022.

He said the state has grown too large under the Conservatives. He said: “Furlough, I think we’d all agree was necessary, but look at the size and scale. Look at the vast energy bailout in 2022, billions. Conservatives understand that debt is a danger.”

The Conservative Party was “too soft” and “too eager to please everyone” in government, the party’s chairman Kevin Hollinrake has said.

Speaking to the Tory conference, Mr Hollinrake praised the virtues of the party being resilient.

He went on to tell the audience in Manchester: “Let’s be honest. Despite the good, the good we did at times, we made mistakes.

“At times we were too soft. We forgot about tough love. We were too eager to please everyone. In politics, you can’t please all the people all the time and it’s a mistake to even try.

“Look at the country today. We are led by a weak Prime Minister who blames everyone but himself for his failures, the economic doldrums we are experiencing, the limbo we are in today. They are purely down to him.”

Conservative Party activists held a minute’s silence at the beginning of the party conference in Manchester in memory of the two people killed in the terror attack at a synagogue on Thursday.

Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said: “Thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives and with the entire community.

“Antisemitism is a stain on our nation’s soul. Stand in grief and solidarity with the Jewish community, I ask everyone to join me in a minute’s silence in their memory.”