Tory conference opens in Birmingham: Badenoch unveils ‘The Right Way’ platform with welfare, childcare and prison pledges

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The Conservative Party Conference 2026 opened on Sunday, October 4, at the ICC and Symphony Hall in Birmingham and runs until Wednesday, October 7. Party leader Kemi Badenoch took the stage on the opening day, welcoming delegates back to Birmingham and presenting the event as a display of a renewed, “common sense” party.

Badenoch unveiled a nearly 100-page statement of principles titled “The Right Way,” whose central rule is that “business, not government, creates growth.” Key pledges include welfare reform — support should be “a safety net, not a lifestyle” — ending the “cliff edge” under which parents earning more than £100,000 lose free childcare hours, and building 50,000 new prison places funded by cutting the overseas aid budget to £1bn a year. She warned that “radical measures may be necessary” at the next election.

In a BBC interview with Laura Kuenssberg, Badenoch described herself as a “classic old school Conservative” and rejected much of what the Conservatives did in government between 2010 and 2024. She also called Reform UK leader Nigel Farage a “grumpy grandpa” when asked about rivals. On Monday, shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith is expected to unveil the party's economic plan, billed as “the most ambitious deregulation project in a generation,” including scrapping the Future Homes Standard and other housebuilding rules due to take effect next year.

The conference opened as Labour scrapped most of its plans to curb jury trials in England and Wales after a public backlash — a reversal the Conservatives claimed as a “major victory,” though shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy said the government was still restricting juries by expanding magistrates' caseloads. Badenoch is due to give her leader's speech on Wednesday morning.