Tories Plan Cuts Beyond £47bn Pledge as Badenoch Opens Conference
Leaked Griffith comments and Friday aid-prison package deepen smaller-state pitch in Birmingham
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File photo: Palace of Westminster in London. Photo: Diliff, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
On Friday she promised another £4 billion in reductions, including £2.5 billion more from the aid budget — leaving about £1 billion a year — and £1 billion from the culture department. She said half of those savings would fund 50,000 additional prison places, part of a roughly £2 billion-a-year programme, with the rest aimed at the deficit, according to The Guardian. Reporting in The Telegraph has also highlighted the party's prison-building and aid-cut framing around the conference.
Conference contrast with Burnham
The pitch sharpens the contrast with Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who has promised a national care service and public control of utilities. The Tories remain third in the polls behind Labour and Reform UK, though Badenoch's personal ratings have rallied over the past year, The Guardian reported.
Badenoch, who has called Margaret Thatcher her hero, told ITV Meridian: "Privatisation was a success … I don't think that Andy Burnham running the water companies is the answer to those problems."
