I'm a classic old school Conservative, says Kemi Badenoch

Kemi Badenoch has declared herself a "classic old school Conservative" as she begins her party's annual conference with a string of policy pledges and a 100 page statement on her guiding principles., external

Badenoch, whose personal poll ratings are higher than that of her party, has characterised Reform leader Nigel Farage as a "grumpy grandpa" and she told Laura Kuenssberg that Labour leader Andy Burnham is "the cheesy uncle who does all the dad jokes".

Asked if her plan for benefit cuts and a massive increase in prison places was a return to the "nasty party" of the past, she said: "It's the common sense party. That's what we're doing.

In her essay The Right Way - a deliberate echo of an essay written by Margaret Thatcher in 1976, external entitled The Right Approach - Badenoch says the last Conservative government failed because it did not know what it stood for.

The Tories would achieve growth through tax cuts, cutting red tape and reducing the size of the civil service back to pre-pandemic levels, the essay says.

"Political parties now need to recruit those who have the stomach to say no to good causes when the resources simply are not there to do everything."

An 88 foot long satirical take on the Bayeaux Tapestry poking fun at Labour and Reform UK is a popular attraction at the Tory conference

As their conference gets under way in Birmingham the Conservatives have pledged to end a childcare "cliff edge", which currently means parents earning more than £100,000 do not qualify for the entitlement.

Over the 14 years the Conservatives were in power, around 500 net prison places were created, which takes into account 14,142 added in existing and new jails, set against 13,660 lost mainly to dilapidation and closures.

She said: "We're going to be having debates, we're going to have arguments, they are going to be fun.

During a question and answer session, Badenoch focused on different topics covered in her essay – including citizenship and how communities need to operate on trust.

To applause in the well-attended hall, Badenoch said: "I don't want lots of little ghettos of separatist communities where they are recreating the place they come from - that will ruin the United Kingdom."