Kemi gives Labour, and the Tories, both barrels

Badenoch's blunt warnings on her own party's failings

- By Jonathan Walker Whitehall Editor

KEMI Badenoch will today unleash a double-barrelled attack on both Labour and her own Conservative party in an incendiary speech. The straight-talking Tory leader will cite "mad and bad" policies from Chancellor Rachel Reeves. And she will accuse Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's Government of "vandalism" for imposing more controls on academy schools.

But she will also be blunt about the failings of Tory administrations before last year's General Election, which saw the party booted out of power and reduced to just 121 MPs, compared with Labour's 412.

Her party's three biggest errors were failing to prepare properly for Brexit, embracing green "net zero" policies and allowing immigration to soar, Ms Badenoch will say in her first major speech of the year.

She will also warn that "generations" of MPs have failed to be honest with voters and will insist: "The public will never trust politicians unless we can accept our mistakes."

Ms Badenoch will say: "We announced that we would leave the European Union before we had a plan for growth outside the EU.