Kemi Badenoch vowed to tell ‘hard truths’ to her party and the country last night and shake-up Britain’s economy so it would be ‘fit for the future’.
In her first interview since winning the vote of Tory members, she said yesterday she was ‘very optimistic’ about what the party can pitch to voters. On the economy, she said she was going to be thinking about it ‘in a different way’ which amounted to ‘completely the opposite of what Rachel Reeves is doing.’
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, she said among the ‘hard truths’ she would tell the party and the country is that ‘we are getting poorer, we are getting older.’ But she downplayed the importance of the milestone yesterday, instead suggesting the ‘best thing will be when we get to a point where the colour of your skin is no more remarkable than the colour of your eyes, or the colour of your hair.’
Mrs Badenoch sparked further controversy by claiming the outrage over parties held in Downing Street during the Covid lockdown was ‘overblown.’ She said she would get back to ‘telling the truth’ by ‘talking about the genuine trade-offs that we need to have as a country in order to move forward’. Mrs Badenoch served as Business Secretary - and held the Women and Equalities brief - under Rishi Sunak. Prior to that, she held several junior ministerial roles.
Mrs Badenoch, who quit as a junior minister in Boris Johnson’s government, criticised Covid restrictions as she suggested Partygate was ‘overblown’. Mrs Badenoch is expected to appoint her full Shadow Cabinet tomorrow, ahead of a meeting of the team on Tuesday.The party leader is hoping to show the public a united front in opposition after years of infighting in government.