The Tory leader says Rachel Reeves has been left ‘holding the baby’ (Image: Getty)
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been left in her job because if she is ousted from the Treasury then Sir Keir Starmer “will have to go”, Kemi Badenoch declared as she launched a blazing attack on Labour.
The Conservative leader claimed Sir Keir’s “leadership is in tatters” as 2025 draws to a close and warned “he is in trouble”.
There is strong speculation the Labour leader may face a leadership challenge if the party suffers disastrous results in the looming May elections to councils and the Scottish and Welsh parliaments, but Mrs Badenoch said a change at the top will not rescue the party. She claimed the potential successors are “as bad as each other”.
She said: “There’s this myth it is just because Starmer is a dud or if they only had Ed Miliband or Wes Streeting or Angela Rayner everything would be fine. That’s not true.
“The reason why things aren’t fine is because of Labour itself. They are a party that was built for a different era.”
Mrs Badenoch said a key reason why Ms Reeves is still in control of the Treasury is “they probably don’t have anyone else who wants to do the job”. She said: “Labour is a party that is there to spend money. They don’t know how to make money; they know how to spend it, and when there isn’t any money and it’s all difficult decisions, they fall apart.
“Poor Rachel Reeves is the one left holding the baby.”
Government borrowing for the financial year to November hit £132.3billion – £10 billion more than the previous year, and the economy shrank by 0.1% in October.
Mrs Badenoch said: “She doesn’t know what to do with [the position of Chancellor] but she is also doing a terrible job. If someone else comes in I’m not sure they’d be any better.
“I think the other reason [the Chancellor is still in post] is if Rachel Reeves goes, Starmer too will have to go. He is in a very bad place.
“His leadership is in tatters. He is in trouble.”
The personal authority of the Prime Minister and Chancellor took a serious blow in June when the Government was forced into a u-turn on disability benefits reform by the threat of a Labour rebellion. Welfare spending is forecast to increase from £333billion in 2025-26 to £406.2billion in 2030-31.
Mrs Badenoch warns that if Labour ducks benefits reform “we are going to bankrupt ourselves”.
She said: “Right now, what we should be doing is getting money for defence and securing our borders, strengthening our country. I want to see a stronger economy and a strong country. That’s what Conservatives stand for.”
Kemi Badenoch wants the Tories to win back the public’s trust in 2026 (Image: Getty)
The Conservative leader fears the number of young people not in employment, education or training (Neet) will increase over the course of the Parliament “because Labour is making benefits so easy to get”.
The number of so-called Neets aged 16-24 stood at 946,000 between July and September – a dip of 2,000 on the previous three months – and there is cross-party concern the equivalent of one in eight young people is in this state. The UK’s unemployment rate climbed to 5.1% in the three months to October, with the number of 18-24-year-old jobless spiking by 85,000 in the biggest rise since November 2022.
Mrs Badenoch attacked the Chancellor, saying: “The last Budget was a Budget for benefits; it was not a Budget for growth and they do not know what to do beyond taking money from people who work and giving it to people who don’t work.
“They are the welfare party. We are the party of working people.”
