Kemi Badenoch MP: speeches

Speeches

• 11 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Every week I come here to tell the Prime Minister the truth. The truth is that the economy is in a spiral because Labour—all of them—put up taxes, which cuts growth. We all heard the Prime Minister. He did not rule out tax rises, so the Government are going to have to put up taxes even more. This is a spiral. If that was not bad enough, this morning we heard that because of his terrible Chagos deal, Mauritius is scrapping income tax. Why on earth should the British taxpayer pay £30 billion for tax cuts in Mauritius?

• 11 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  The Prime Minister knows this has nothing to do with national security; it is his bad negotiating. I have had the security briefings; it was a bad deal before, and it is still a bad deal. In half an hour, the Chancellor is going to stand up and tell us that everything is fine, but the truth is that she has made bad choices—bad choices that mean higher inflation, bad choices that have led to lower growth, and bad choices that have meant that jobs have been lost every single month since Labour came into office. That is hundreds of thousands of families who have lost their income in Stoke, Grangemouth and Luton. Those are their constituencies and businesses across the country. The Chancellor has lost all her headroom. She has fallen out with the Cabinet. She is making unfunded spending commitments, which she promised not to do. Is the truth not that we have got the wrong Chancellor and the wrong priorities?

• 11 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  The Prime Minister loves talking about Liz Truss. Why? Because he wants to hide from his own economic record. He is a coward. Every time he stands at the Dispatch Box and talks about Liz Truss, it is because he is scared of talking about his record and what is happening to the economy out there. Let us bring the Prime Minister back to the U-turn that he is running away from—a U-turn on a policy that his MPs went out defending time and again. Let us go through what is happening here. One minute, they said that it was right to take the winter fuel payment away, because there might be a run on the pound; the next minute, they said it was right to give it back. This is laughable. The Prime Minister stands there, all puffed up and self-righteous. Why can he not just admit that he made a mistake?

• 11 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Perhaps the Prime Minister knows something I do not, because there is only one hospital in my constituency. Since Labour took office, inflation has nearly doubled, growth has halved and unemployment has surged. Is this what the Prime Minister meant when he tweeted that “The economy is improving”?

• 11 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I get better every week; the Prime Minister gets worse. Last week— [ Interruption. ]

• 11 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Last week, the Prime Minister had to get his lines from the Russian embassy. I think we all know that he is getting worse, and what he does not want to talk about is how he is going to make the economy better. That is what the people out there want to hear, and he has got no answers. His trade deals have unravelled. With the strategic defence review, everyone out there is asking where the money is coming from. The fact is that he does not know how to balance the books. The Chancellor says that the winter fuel payment U-turn will not be funded through higher borrowing, so will the Prime Minister admit that it will be funded by putting everybody’s taxes up?

• 11 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  The Prime Minister must be talking about a different economy. All of us in this House heard about unemployment increasing—unemployment has increased every month since Labour took office. Last year, the Prime Minister said that he was taking the winter fuel payment away to balance the books, but the books are not balanced; in fact, they are worse. This year, the deficit is forecast to be £10 billion higher since the Budget—not since last year’s election, but since the Budget. In what way are the books now balanced?

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I asked the Prime Minister what he believes in. He had to look in his folder to find the answer. His MPs behind him know what they believe in—he does not know. He has been in government for nearly a year. It will only get harder and harder. The canned, forced laughter, the planted questions—all that will disappear because at every single point things are getting worse. He has to ask Morgan McSweeney what it is that he believes in, but the fact is that chaos is being felt in the economy. The Chancellor said she would not be coming back with new tax rises, but she will have to pay for all these U-turns she is announcing out there, won’t she?

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I did not ask the Prime Minister about a taskforce. I asked him if he will keep the two-child benefit cap, and he does not know—it is just chaos and uncertainty. He has no details. He is briefing something and causing a lot of confusion to the people out there. On that two-child benefit cap, I tell him this: I believe in family, but I also believe in fairness. On the Conservative side of the House, we believe that people on benefits should have to make the same choices on having children as everyone else. What does the Prime Minister believe?

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  It was our Government that stood behind Ukraine and led the way in Europe. Everything the Prime Minister has said this afternoon is total nonsense, obfuscation, and avoiding the question. He does not have any answers. It is disgraceful. I asked the Prime Minister about the two-child benefit cap; he is talking about the Kremlin. He is saying everything he can to distract from the mess he is making of our economy. The OECD has downgraded growth for the next two years. He cannot rule out tax rises. Police chiefs are saying that they do not have the money they need to keep the public safe, just as he is releasing more criminals on to the streets. His Cabinet are squabbling with each other, and they said that they have lost control of the borders, but he still managed to find £30 billion to give away the Chagos islands. This is total and utter chaos. Two weeks ago, he was crowing about his historic trade deal and how he got zero per cent tariffs on steel. Now the steel industry will face 25% tariffs unless he does exactly what President Trump tells him to. It is chaos, chaos, chaos—and isn’t the root of the chaos that it is about this Prime Minister, his decisions and his judgment?

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  The Office for Budget Responsibility has said there was no such black hole. The Prime Minister has just given away £30 billion for the Chagos islands—that is his black hole. He has not stabilised the economy. Borrowing prices are higher now than at any time in the last Parliament. He has not stabilised the economy. He has no clear answers on what he is doing. It is just chaos, chaos, chaos. He keeps making announcements with no detail. Let’s move to another area of confusion. Can we get a simple answer: will the Government keep the two-child benefit cap?

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Three weeks ago, the winter fuel policy was set in stone. Two weeks ago, the Prime Minister U-turned. Today, the Chancellor is rushing her plans because she just realised when winter is. So, on the behalf of the pensioners who want to know, can the Prime Minister be clear with us here and now: how many of the 10 million people who lost their winter fuel payments will get it back?

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  The Prime Minister clearly has selective amnesia. I asked him three questions about the winter fuel payment two weeks ago and he was floundering. The fact is he has not answered the question I asked him; he cannot tell us who will get the payments. All we see is U-turn after U-turn—his head must be spinning. Will he apologise now, including to his own Back Benchers, for taking the payments away in the first place? Can he tell us how he will pay for this?

• 21 May 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  It was extraordinary listening to that last answer from the Prime Minister. Inflation was 2% when the Conservatives left office; it is now nearly double that. When will he recognise that it is Labour’s Budget that is driving up inflation?

• 21 May 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  This is a Prime Minister who says he is taking measures, but the jobs tax is killing jobs, inflation is up, and business confidence is down. Everyone is worried. He promised to cut bills, but today we see that they are rising because of his policies. He promised not to raise taxes on working people, but his jobs tax means that people are losing their jobs. Every week, we come here with a new company that says it is shedding jobs, and that is on his watch. He promised to protect pensioners, but his winter fuel cut has driven thousands into hardship. His MPs hate this—he cannot see them, but they all look sick just hearing what it he is going to do. [ Interruption. ] They are laughing— [ Interruption. ]

• 21 May 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  The Prime Minister needs to stop whining about what the last Government did and look at what he is doing. He is the Prime Minister. Look at the numbers this morning. As if inflation figures were not bad enough, we have also learned that the Deputy Prime Minister is on manoeuvres. The Prime Minister has lost control of the economy and he has lost control of his Cabinet. The Deputy Prime Minister is sitting there staring at me. She knew exactly what she was doing when she briefed the papers. She is demanding eight new tax rises—as if we have not suffered enough. People out there are struggling. Businesses are struggling. People are losing their jobs. We cannot have more tax rises. Will the Prime Minister rule out new tax rises this year?

• 21 May 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  His MPs are laughing, just as they laughed at the Budget. Hands up who here wanted winter fuel cuts? Not a single one of them. The fact is, this Prime Minister is destroying them. They need to look at what they are doing to the country. The truth is, and we all know it, that it is this Prime Minister, this Labour Government and their policies that are shafting the country, is it not?

• 21 May 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  That is laughable from the Prime Minister. He knows that inflation was brought down by us to 2%—bang on target. We were reacting to a war in Ukraine that brought inflation up all over Europe. While he is doing trade deals with countries such as the US and India, their inflation is going down, but it is going up here. Why? The Office for National Statistics says that the inflation figures are driven by significant increases in household bills. We warned him repeatedly that this is exactly what would happen—what his policies would do. We called it “awful April”. The Prime Minister came into office saying that he would tackle the cost of living crisis. He has failed. He has not got a clue, has he?

• 21 May 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Mr Speaker— [Interruption.]

• 21 May 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I made it really easy for the Prime Minister. It was a simple question—yes or no—and he could not answer it. I wonder how the public feel about a man who cannot give a straight answer to a simple question. Look at the MPs behind him—they are all cheering. When this inevitable U-turn on winter fuel comes, and it will, from a desperate Prime Minister, what will he say to the 348 MPs who went over the top and voted for the winter fuel cut last September? Just like the British public, how can any of them ever trust him again?

• 21 May 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  That is desperate stuff. The whole House will have heard the Prime Minister refuse to rule out new tax rises. The whole House heard it: he did not rule them out. There is open warfare in his Cabinet. The Deputy Prime Minister is clearly calling the shots. What have we learned? We are heading for new tax rises. We know that inflation is up. It is just more and more bad news from a Prime Minister who has lost control. We heard the Prime Minister’s earlier answer on winter fuel. Let us try to get some more information. I shall ask him a simple question. It requires only one word: yes or no. Is he planning to U-turn on winter fuel cuts?

• 20 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  When Labour negotiates, Britain loses. The Prime Minister talks about a hat trick of deals—they are own goals. In 2020, the Conservatives concluded the trade and co-operation agreement, the largest and most comprehensive free trade agreement in the world. We agreed to come back in five years with improved terms. This renegotiation should have been an opportunity to improve terms for our country, but the terms are improved for the EU. The Prime Minister can dress it up as much as he wants, but he has failed. It is bad for bills; it is bad for jobs; and it is bad for borders. This is not a deal made for Britain; this deal is made for Labour’s public relations, to show Labour on the world stage, but it is a stitch-up for our country in return for short-term headlines. Let us take the Prime Minister’s abject failures one by one. First, on fishing, he has given away the prize most desired by EU member states, and he has done so for almost nothing. It is very easy to sign deals if you are prepared to give everything away for pennies. This deal locks out our fishermen until 2038. We are now in a worse position than the Faroe Islands—a set of islands with the population of Scarborough, but which gets to have annual negotiations. The Prime Minister quoted some organisations that welcome his deal—he does not listen to them normally—but he left one out deliberately: the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations has described the deal as a surrender and a giveaway. This is a Prime Minister who would pay to give away his family silver. Why is the Prime Minister selling our fishermen down the river? Is it because they do not vote Labour? Secondly, on food and agriculture, the Prime Minister is going to pay the EU to abide by laws that we have no say on. While British farmers struggle with the family farms tax that his Chancellor has imposed on them, their regulations will now be made in Paris and enforced in Brussels. It is a total capitulation. We are not in the EU, and we are not at the table, so can the Prime Minister tell us how he will ensure accountability for the hundreds of regulations that he has signed this country up to? Thirdly, on energy, the Prime Minister has shackled us to the EU’s emissions trading scheme. That means that the Government can no longer cut energy costs without the EU’s permission. It will also unravel parts of the India free trade agreement that he has just negotiated. This is not a technicality; it is a betrayal. The House should be in no doubt that this means higher bills, more pain and less flexibility. Fourthly, on the Prime Minister’s manifesto promises, he said that we would not rejoin the single market. He promised no new payments, and that he would protect British interests. That promise has lasted about as long as his commitment to protect pensioners’ winter fuel allowance. He said whatever was needed to win power, and now he will say whatever is needed to keep it, even if it means selling out our sovereignty, our businesses and the public. The truth is that most of what was announced yesterday was not a deal. There was no binding agreement on anything. Most of the items outlined are simply agreements to enter into further discussions, which we are already having. The Prime Minister is boasting that we will now avoid airport queues because we will get access to EU e-gates. It sounds great, except it is not true; some airports already allow that, and this deal does not guarantee it anywhere, as each country still has to agree. That sums up this deal perfectly: it is a lot of spin to disguise the terrible substance. Having previously ruled out a youth mobility scheme, the Prime Minister is now desperately trying to hide his latest U-turn by rebranding the scheme as an experience. That is risible. We have no details on any cap or time limit, which begs the question: why are the Government talking about increasing migration before they have got a grip on the small boats or the legal migration system? I know that the Prime Minister does not like answering questions, but people out there want to know. Can we have some honesty about what has been discussed? How many young European workers does the Prime Minister think would be acceptable, and will they be able to bring dependants? Even the defence commitments in this deal are hopelessly one-sided. We are making payments, but the EU is offering dialogue and consultation. This is a pitiful return for the country that leads NATO in Europe, and has troops on the ground in Estonia, defending our allies. Can the Prime Minister tell us why there was not a single word in his statement about the money that we will now be sending to Brussels? Can he set out how much those payments will cost taxpayers? In government, details matter, and so does honesty. [Laughter.] Labour Members are laughing, but this is a bad deal for the country. Look at them. This is how they laughed at the Budget. They have no idea what it is that they have signed up to. The Prime Minister said that he would stay out of the single market; he is going into the single market for agrifood, electricity and energy. He said that he would stay out of the customs union, but he is accepting EU tariff rules. How does he plan to stop the EU changing them to our disadvantage? He has no idea, and neither do any of them. The British people know when they are being misled. They know that headlines fail. The Prime Minister did not listen to the CBI on the jobs tax, and he did not listen to the Federation of Small Businesses on the family farms tax. This deal has already unravelled. The damage is becoming clear, and the political consequences will be huge, and here he is, trumpeting his success. When he stands up in a moment, he will deflect, dismiss and distract, but we all know the truth. This is a fiction of a speech, a fraud of a deal, and a failure of a Prime Minister.

• 14 May 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I am not sure that the Prime Minister even knew that employment was up, but there is no point in him blaming everyone else. The fact is that the Conservatives reduced the deficit every year until the pandemic, more than doubled the personal allowance, left 4 million extra jobs, tackled the post-pandemic inflation spike, and left the fastest-growing economy in the G7. Let us talk about what is happening today. Let us look at Beales, a 180-year-old department store in Dorset. It survived two world wars and the winter of discontent, but it could not survive this Labour Government. Beales is having what it calls a “Rachel Reeves closing down sale”. What does the Prime Minister have to say to all the people who have lost their jobs?

• 14 May 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I cannot believe the Prime Minister is still using that figure. We have had this very conversation at the Dispatch Box—he knows it is just capital spending. Either he is not paying attention or he is saying things to disguise what is going on. That money will not pay for the jobs tax. He knows that, and the hospices know it too. The other people who know that things are getting worse are the five leading business groups in the UK. They say that his so-called Employment Rights Bill will be “deeply damaging” to growth. Does the Prime Minister accept that they are right, or does he believe that he knows better than business?

• 14 May 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  The Prime Minister needs to listen to business. We cannot have employment rights without employment. Labour always forgets that it is not Government that creates growth; it is business that creates growth. Businesses are closing, and they are blaming him and his Chancellor. There are 100,000 fewer jobs. Hospices, charities and nurseries are facing bills from the jobs tax that they cannot afford. Even the unions say workers are being thrown on the scrapheap, and all of this before his unemployment Bill makes hiring even more expensive. When will he admit that Labour isn’t working?