Kemi Badenoch to launch Policy Renewal Programme by telling the truth about Net Zero
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Today, [Tuesday 18th March 2025] Kemi Badenoch MP, Leader of the
Conservative Party, will announce her Policy Renewal Programme.
At her speech launching this programme, Kemi Badenoch is
expected to say: “The public made it very clear that the
Conservative Party needed some time away from government. Our
job now is to use that time wisely – just as Margaret Thatcher and
David Cameron did in the generations past. And, just like the
1970s and...Request free trial
Today, [Tuesday 18th March 2025] Kemi Badenoch MP, Leader of the Conservative Party, will announce her Policy Renewal Programme. At her speech launching this programme, Kemi Badenoch is expected to say: “The public made it very clear that the Conservative Party needed some time away from government. Our job now is to use that time wisely – just as Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron did in the generations past. And, just like the 1970s and 2000s, our Party cannot shortcut our way back into office with easy answers or rushed announcements. We must develop credible plans that reflect the shared conservative values of Personal Responsibility, Citizenship, Sound money, Family, Freedom and so much more. And we start today. By talking about one of the biggest problems that our country, and our world, will face in the decades ahead … … and show that Conservatives are in the business again of dealing with reality and the problems we face … … with the detail that they deserve. ….. As a society, we are – or we have been – trying to do two things at once. Keep energy costs down whilst reducing our impact on the environment. These are both noble aims. One of the core principles of a Conservative is to be a custodian of the earth. We care deeply about our natural environment. Our rivers. Our wildlife. Our nature. We badly want to improve it. But the current policies the UK is implementing are largely failing to do this whilst, at the same time, driving up the cost of energy. We're falling between two stools – too high costs and too little progress. And why? Because there's never, ever been a detailed plan. Ed Miliband's Climate Change Act 2008. No plan. Legislating for Net Zero in 2019. No plan. A multi-trillion, 30-year project touching every single aspect of our lives ... Was decided in 90 minutes without a single vote. And, amongst the MPs who spoke that day, only a handful sounded notes of caution. I was one of them. I asked for the plan. And I waited and waited and waited. 845 days later, one came. And it wasn't enough. Think about it for a minute – we're already one-sixth of the way through this. And we are still arguing about whether we have the plan to get there. And all the politicians who glossed over the lack of a plan will be long gone when these targets are missed in the future. We've got to stop doing this. We've got to stop pretending to the next generation. We've got to stop government by press release. It's exactly the reason that the political class has lost trust. The only way that we can regain it is to tell the unvarnished truth. Net Zero by 2050 is impossible. I don't say that with pleasure. Or because I have some ideological desire to dismantle it – in fact, we must do what we can to improve our natural world. I say it because to anyone who has done any serious analysis knows it can't be achieved without a serious drop in our living standards or by bankrupting us. And responsible leaders don't indulge in fictions which are going to make families poorer … Or mortgage their children's future … Particularly without the rest of the world doing the same, making our country less safe, less secure and less resilient. …. It's time for the West to stop pretending everything will be fine. This is not making a moral judgement on net zero. I'm certainly not debating whether climate change exists. It does. I badly want to leave a much better environmental inheritance for my children and for yours. But it doesn't look like the West is going to get remotely close to Net Zero by 2050. And neither will any autocracy – not that they are really trying to anyway. This is what happens when politics turns into fantasy. Maybe some of it will change. But it doesn't look promising. Ed Miliband spends all of his time serving up dollops of lofty rhetoric. And promising that he will take household bills down by £300. Which, by the way, have gone up since they came into office. Thomas Sowell says that “when you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.” The truth is that Net Zero by 2050 is impossible. And we need to be honest with the public who think that Labour have a plausible plan. They do not. We have to do better than this. And that's why, today as part of our policy renewal, we are going to do something that Labour failed to do when in Opposition – and explains why they are floundering so badly now. We are going to deal with the reality. Answer the real questions. Confront the real problems. And we start today on energy and net zero.”
ENDS Notes to Editors The full text of Kemi Badenoch's speech will be made available following the launch.
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