KEMI Badenoch has attacked both Labour and Reform for “divisive” identity politics in a pitch to be the country’s unity candidate.
The Tory leader also hit out at left-wingers for trying to pigeonhole black Britons – and right-wing racists for saying they do not belong here.
Kemi Badenoch speaking in Manchester today
She went on the offensive as she opened the party’s four-day conference in Manchester, which she will try to use as a platform to revive her dismal poll ratings and silence criticism.
In a speech to the faithful, she said: “Yes, we have a mountain to climb, but we have a song in our hearts and we are up for the fight.”
Ms Badenoch accused the two other main parties of being “two sides of the same coin” that seek to divide.
She said: “Both deal in grievance. Both divide our country into tribes and labels. Both practice identity politics which will destroy our country. I am saying no: no to division and no to identity politics.”
Ms Badenoch was born in Wimbledon but was brought up in Nigeria before returning to the UK in her late teens.
She said: “My children are British. And I will not allow anyone on the Left to tell them they belong in a different category or anyone on the Right to tell them they do not belong in their own country.”
But she said that while Britain is a multiracial country, “nations cannot survive on diversity alone”.
She said: “We need a strong, common culture, rooted in our history, our language, our institutions, and our belief in liberty under the law.”
Ms Badenoch’s conference hit a bumpy start as Tory donor jumped ship to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Mark Gallagher, who gave £2,000 to Badenoch’s leadership campaign, quit the Conservatives around two months ago and is now backing Mr Farage.
A Reform UK source told Sky News: “Nigel (Farage) and Mark have been friends for a long time.
“We understand he is very disenchanted with the Conservative Party,”
A Conservative source hit back saying Mr Gallagher was briefly an adviser on Ms Badenoch’s leadership campaign and pointed to his past affiliations with other political outfits, including the Brexit Party.
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