Tory leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch has set out her plan to defeat Nigel Farage and his insurgent Reform UK.
The populist party was a significant thorn in the side of the Conservatives at the July General Election, winning the third highest share of the popular vote.
It cost the Tories a significant amount of constituencies, forcing them to sit up and take notice of the right-wing faction.
Badenoch told Tory members that the party must understand why it lost such a significant amount of votes to Reform.
Kemi Badenoch discussed the threat of Farage
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“My belief is we lost votes to Reform because we did not deliver on our promises, especially on immigration and tax”, she said.
“We promised lower immigration, we promised lower tax, we didn’t deliver that. In order to do that, we must focus on the first half.
“We shouldn’t make promises we can’t deliver and earn back trust. We also need to look at what the Reform leader has done to be successful.
“We also need to look at what the Reform Party leader has done to be successful.
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“Nigel Farage speaks with clarity and conviction. When people hear him speak, they believe he understands his concerns. For a long time when we were speaking, people just heard this technocratic managerialist language which didn’t mean much to people.
“It was all policy, no principles. That is why I keep emphasising principles. Some say ‘you need to tack to the left, you need to tack to the right’.
Kemi Badenoch said winning back Reform voters is ‘not a matter of left or right’
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“It is not about left or right, it is about right or wrong.”
Badenoch commented on Brexit, saying much of it has not been a success for Britain.
She added that leaving the EU is “pointless” if Britain continues following a similar path to the bloc.
“That is what I fought for as Business and Trade Secretary”, she said.
Nigel FaragePA“Signing trade deals yes, cooperating with countries across the world yes, but also looking at how we can have smarter regulation and looking at how we can compete better with our nearest neighbours.
“Being a competitive economy is one of the things that will help us grow.
“One of the reasons why Brexit has not been as much of a success as it should be is because we did not start with a plan.”