Kemi Badenoch MP response to the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Budget Statement

Today [Wednesday 26^th November 2025], Kemi Badenoch MP, Leader of the Conservative Party, responded the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Budget Statement in the House of Commons.

In her speech, Kemi Badenoch MP said:

Checked against delivery

“And may I congratulate the Rt Hon Lady on delivering her second budget. 

I hope she enjoyed it. Because it really should be her last.

What a total humiliation.

Last year, she put up taxes by £40 billion.

The biggest tax raid in British history.

She promised that she wouldn't be back for more.

She swore it was a one off.

She told everyone that from now on it would be stability and she would pay for everything with growth.

Today, she has broken every single one of those promises.

If she had any decency she would resign.

At the last budget, she said she was proud to be the country's first ever female Chancellor, after this budget she will go down as the country's worst ever Chancellor.

Today she has announced a new tax raid of £26 billion. They're all cheering.

Household income is down.

Spending policies in this budget increase borrowing in every year.

That smorgasbord of misery we have just heard from her can be summed up in one sentence: Labour are hiking taxes to pay for welfare.

This is a Budget for Benefit Street, Madam Deputy Speaker. Paid for by working people.

This Budget increases benefits for 560,000 families by an average of £5,000.

They are hiking taxes on workers, pensioners, and savers, to pay for handouts to keep their backbenchers quiet.

They can chunter all they like. These are the same backbenchers, Madam Deputy Speaker, who cheered last year when she taxed jobs and left more than 100,000 people without an income.

They cheered, because they didn't understand the consequences of what they were doing, and they still don't.

Madam Deputy Speaker, it's not been an easy time for the Chancellor.

No one liked seeing her sitting on those benches, as it dawned on her that her own backbenchers were going to do to her political career, what she's done to our economy.

But she could have chosen today to bring down welfare spending and get more people into work.

Instead, she has chosen to put up tax after tax after tax.

Taxes on workers. Taxes on savers. Taxes on pensioners. Taxes on investors. Taxes on homes. Holidays, cars, I think even milkshakes.

Taxes on anyone doing the right thing.

She and this government have lost what little credibility they had left, and no one will ever trust her again.

What's amazing Madam Deputy Speaker, is that she has the nerve to come to this House and claim this is all someone else's fault.

A laundry list of excuses.

Madam Deputy Speaker, they blame the Conservatives, as if we've been sneaking into the Treasury under the cover of darkness to give pay rises to the unions.

She inherited an economy with inflation at 2% and record high employment.

She has tanked it, in just over a year.

Endless excuses.

She blames Brexit.

She blames Donald Trump.

She needs to blame herself.

And I've got some news for her.

The Chancellor didn't seem to understand what the OBR were saying.

Inflation is up, not down

And that inflation was stoked by her tax and spend decisions.

The Economic Fiscal Outlook says that they expect inflation to stay higher for longer.

Everyone else has read it. She still hasn't read the OBR analysis.

She blames higher than expected borrowing costs.

Where does she think they came from?

Those borrowing costs are driven by her lack of grip.

She is paying more, you're saying us, she is paying more to borrow than Greece. She is paying more to borrow than at any point under the 14 years of Conservative Government.

Perhaps if Labour MPs read a book sometimes, they know something.

That includes an energy crisis, Madam Deputy Speaker, under us we had an energy crisis sparked by a war in Ukraine and a global pandemic. What is her excuse? What is her excuse?

She is taking the public for fools, but they are under no illusions whose fault this is.

The fact is the bad choices she is making today.

Choices to break promises. Choices to put up taxes. Choices to spend more of other people's money.

Are because of the bad choices she made at her last disastrous Budget.

If you want growth, you need to start with knowing with what kind of country you want to be, and make a plan to get there, create certainty for the people and businesses who will drive growth. 

There is no growth and no growth plan because Labour focused on settling scores and scratching the itches they had in opposition.

She promised stability, she delivered chaos.

Just look at the circus around this Budget.

First the leaks. Then more leaks to try to undo the damage.

Calling panicky press conferences, U-turning on her U-turns.

Rolling the pitch one day, only to plough through it the next.

She had the cheek to talk about stability, Madam Deputy Speaker.

She has become the first Chancellor in history to release the whole Budget ahead of time.

This is extraordinary.

It tells you everything you need to know about her grip on the Treasury.

She's making the UK a shambolic laughingstock to international investors.

And if she doesn't resign for breaking her promises, she should sure as hell go for this.

But Madam Deputy Speaker, what have we got for all this chaos and disorder?

There are a million more people claiming Universal Credit than there were at the time of the last Budget.

Government spending up.

Welfare spending up.

Universal credit claimants up.

Unemployment up.

Debt interest up.

Inflation up.

And what about the things you want to go up?

What about the things you want to go up?

Growth down.

Investment down.

Business confidence down.

The credibility of the Chancellor?

Not just down, through the floor.

These figures are shocking. 

Does she really think anyone will be confused by the slight of her hand that she had in her speech?

Her speech today was an exercise in self-delusion.

Today, she had an opportunity to apologise and show some humility.

Instead, we've been fed puff pieces in the Times and the FT showing a woman wallowing in self-pity, whining about mansplaining and misogyny.

Madam Deputy Speaker, let me explain to the Chancellor, woman to woman.

People out there aren't complaining because she's female, they're complaining because she is utterly incompetent.

Real equality means being held to the same standard as everyone else.

It means being judged on results.

Take her bright idea, the Office for Value for money.

It has been closed down because it didn't save a penny, in fact it cost the taxpayer £1.6 million.

You couldn't make this stuff up.

Madam Deputy Speaker, I have identified a way to save taxpayers huge amounts of money by sacking just one person.

The woman sitting opposite.

The ex-Chief Economist of the Bank of England was not “mansplaining”, he wasn't “mansplaining” when he said the uncertainty around today's Budget is “the single biggest reason growth has flatlined.”

What did the Chancellor think would happen when she went on Breakfast telly to do an emergency public service announcement?

“I interrupt your cheerios to bring you this frightening message about income tax”

And then, unbelievably, she changed her mind three days later.

No wonder people are in despair.

She says, she wants people to respect her.

Respect is earned.

She apparently told Labour MPs this week, “I'll show the media! I'll show the Tories! I will not let them beat me”.

Show us what? Making stuff up at the Dispatch Box. Incompetence, chaos, and the highest tax burden in history.

She said to them “I'll be there on Wednesday, I'll be there next year, and I'll be back the year after that.”

God help us.

She is spineless, shameless, and absolutely aimless.

Talk to any business. Talk to any business. Talk to someone looking for a job.

Unemployment is up every single month since Labour have been in office.

They don't want to hear it, but it's true.

They are shouting and complaining, they cannot create jobs.

It's the worst year for graduate recruitment on record.

Are they proud of this?

They don't want to hear the truth, but I am speaking for all of those people out there who are sick of this government.

Companies like Merck and INEOS are slashing investment plans.

The construction sector has shrunk.

How is that housebuilding target going by the way?

I'll tell you. Madam Deputy Speaker. They're miles behind and won't even come close to what we achieved.

Business confidence is at record lows.

No wonder today future growth has been revised down in every year of the scorecard.

The papers are reporting that one in eight business leaders is planning to leave Britain.

Even one of Labour's biggest ever donors, Lakshmi Mittal, has fled the country.

What we have on front of us is a Budget littered with broken promises.

She stood on a manifesto, which promised better returns for UK savers.

Today, she's put taxes up on savings, on the salary sacrifice even.

She promised to give pensioners the security in retirement, they deserve.

Today she's slapped higher taxes on people saving for their pension.

She promised to make Britain the best place in the world to invest and do business.

Today she has raised the dividend tax rate.

She and the Prime Minister had already broken their promise to freeze Council Tax.

Today she's decided to go even further, introducing a new property tax, clobbering family homes that will only raise small amounts.

This is Labour's Britain. This is Labour's Britain.

People who work hard and save hard to buy their homes get taxed more, while those who don't work, who in some cases refuse to work, get their accommodation paid for by taxpayers.

And then to top it all off because taxing your home, your car, your savings, and your pension wasn't enough.

She has – by her own admission – broken her manifesto promise on income tax.

Because in the last Budget, she said, and I quote, “I am keeping every single promise on tax that I made in our manifesto. So, there will be no extension of the freeze in income tax thresholds”. 

She said in that Budget that “extending the threshold freeze would hurt working people” and “take money out of their payslips”.

But today she has just done exactly that.

Why should anyone believe anything she has said in this Budget?

And so where is everyone's money going?

Small changes to rail fares and prescriptions.

These are distractions while she steals your wallet.

The real story here, Madam Deputy Speaker, the real story is that Labour have lost control of welfare spending.

Not only will working people have their tax thresholds frozen while benefits go up in line with inflation.

Not only have Labour abandoned reforms that would have saved the taxpayer £5 billion, after pressure from these backbenches.

Today, they have added another £3 billion to the bill by scrapping the two-child benefit cap.

We introduced the cap, Madam Deputy Speaker, because it means people on benefits have to make the same difficult decisions about having children as everyone else.

Even Labour voters know that it strikes the right balance between supporting people who are struggling and protecting taxpayers who are struggling themselves.

Just this summer the Chancellor admitted lifting the two-child benefit cap was not affordable.

But that was before the Prime Minister accidentally fired the starting gun on the race to replace him.

So now, he and the Chancellor are buying the votes of their own MPs, with taxpayers' money.

If she wants to reduce child poverty, she should stop taxing their parents and stop destroying their jobs.

She congratulated herself on a new tax on landlords.

Let me tell her this.

Hiking tax on landlords will only push up rents.

It will push landlords out of the market.

The people who will suffer are the tenants.

And then she talks about taxes on electric vehicles.

These changes will hit rural drivers the hardest, but we know Labour don't care about rural people.

All this Budget delivers is higher taxes and out-of-control spending.

Nobody voted for this.

The Chancellor must take responsibility.

She chose to impose the jobs tax, driving unemployment higher month after month.

She chose to abandon welfare reform, meaning the benefits bill is spiralling.

She chose to spend more and more money she didn't have, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.

She's out of money, out of ideas, out of her depth, and now she has run out of road.

The country simply cannot afford, a Chancellor who can't keep her own promises.

Her position is untenable, and she knows it.

He's talking to the Chancellor.

Is he mansplaining to you by the way? Is he mansplaining? Do you want some help? Would you like some help?

What the Prime Minister should grow a backbone and sack her.

But he won't. Because he knows if she goes down, he goes down with her.

So, we're stuck with them both, Lorrell and foolhardy.

Does she have any, any sympathy for the people facing Christmas without a salary because of her Jobs Tax?

For the retailers who've are suffering sleepless nights because of their plummeting Christmas sales?

People out there are crying.

Last year we had the horrors of the Halloween budget, this year it's the Nightmare before Christmas.

And as for her she's the unwelcome Christmas guest 10 minutes through the door and she's eaten all the Quality Street, Madam Deputy Speaker.

But let me tell the Chancellor, let me tell the Chancellor something she has forgotten.

Behind every line in today's Red Book is a family.

A home.

A lifetime of work and sacrifice.

People are frightened. And they have every reason to be.

The Chancellor has spent the last year terrifying them.

Every decision that she and the Prime Minister make, puts more pressure onto the people who keep this country going.

If Labour are the party of working people.

Why is it that every day under them thousands more people sign off work and onto benefits?

Its Conservatives are the party of work.

The Labour Party should be renamed the Welfare Party.

And they are making a mistake.

The British public don't want higher welfare spending.

They want people in work, providing for themselves.

They want to live in a country where hard work pays.

Where what you put in reflects what you get out.

And we agree with them.

There is an alternative, we Conservatives have set it out.

This Budget could have saved £47 billion, including £23 billion from welfare.

She could have applied our Golden Economic Rule, allocating half of those savings to cutting the deficit.

And using the rest to cut taxes.

Oh, they're all pretending they're not listening it's the shame of the mess they've made...

Even the dog is laughing at the Chancellor, Madam Deputy Speaker.

She could have applied our Golden Economic Rule, allocating half of those savings to cutting the deficit, using the rest to cut taxes.

She could have abolished Stamp Duty on homes, to get the housing market moving.

Abolished business rates on shops, to breathe life into our high streets.

She could have introduced our Cheap Power Plan, it saves a lot more money than she announced, to bring down energy costs for homes and businesses.

That's what she should have done.

She should be on the side of people who get up and go to work.

People who take a risk to start a company.

People working all hours to keep their business afloat.

She should be on the side the farmer trying to hand something over to the next generation.

The investor deciding whether to spend their money in the UK or elsewhere.

She should be on the side of the young person looking for their first job.

The saver doing the right thing and putting money away for a rainy day.

The pensioner trying to enjoy a decent retirement.

This country works when you make the country work for them.

Only the Conservatives are on their side, Madam Deputy Speaker.

And our plan for them is simple.

Bring down energy costs.

Cut Spending, cut Tax, back business

And get Britain working again.”