Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch raised eyebrows at the party’s Manchester conference by appearing to liken Nigel Farage to a pig through a pointed literary reference during her keynote address.
The Tory chief delivered an expansive 45-minute speech outlining her policy vision, including headline-grabbing pledges to abolish stamp duty, dismantle the climate change act, crack down on wasteful university courses, slim down the civil service workforce, tighten benefits eligibility, eliminate inheritance taxes on agricultural land, and overhaul Britain’s immigration system.
Shaw quote deployed against political rivals
Yet despite the Reform UK party posing an existential threat to Conservative electoral prospects, Mrs Badenoch notably avoided directly confronting the challenge throughout most of her remarks. When she finally mentioned the Reform leader, it came wrapped in a provocative comparison.
Lumping the Clacton MP together with other opposition figures, Mrs Badenoch declared: “Whether it’s Starmer, Farage, Corbyn or Davey, all these men are shaking the same magic money tree following the same, failed playbook.
She continued her attack by accusing the quartet of offering “no plan for growth, no honesty about the scale of the challenges,” warning their approaches “always leads to the same result: More government, more taxes, more debt.”
Irish playwright’s wisdom invoked
The Conservative leader characterised her opponents’ economic positions as “irresponsible” and “cynical,” insisting “it’s why Britain needs Conservatives back in charge.”
However, rather than launching into direct criticism of Mr Farage and the others, Mrs Badenoch pivoted to quote Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw with words that carried unmistakable implications.
“But we can’t beat them, simply by attacking them,” she told the conference hall. “As George Bernard Shaw said: ‘Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it’.”
The literary reference drew immediate attention for its apparent suggestion that engaging with Mr Farage directly would be futile and degrading, with the Reform leader portrayed as someone who thrives on confrontational politics.
Wide-ranging policy announcements
Beyond the rhetorical flourish, Mrs Badenoch’s speech represented her most substantial policy offering since assuming the Conservative leadership following the party’s catastrophic general election defeat.
The stamp duty abolition announcement marked her boldest move yet, aimed at addressing Britain’s housing affordability crisis by eliminating the transaction tax that many economists argue distorts the property market and restricts mobility.
Her pledge to scrap the climate change act signals a sharp departure from the net zero commitments that have defined Conservative environmental policy in recent years, likely proving controversial amongst moderate voters whilst appealing to the party’s right flank.
The promise to end “rip-off university courses” targets degree programmes that leave graduates with substantial debt but poor employment prospects, tapping into growing public scepticism about the value proposition of higher education.
Civil service reduction plans echo long-standing Conservative themes about bloated bureaucracy, whilst the benefits crackdown continues the party’s traditional positioning on welfare reform.
Eliminating inheritance tax on family farms addresses concerns from agricultural communities about estates being broken up to pay death duties, a policy area where Reform UK has also sought to gain traction.
Immigration overhaul promised
Mrs Badenoch’s commitment to “fix Britain’s broken immigration model” acknowledged one of the issues that contributed most significantly to the Conservative Party’s electoral collapse, with millions of traditional Tory voters defecting to Reform UK over record-high net migration figures.
However, specific details on how the Conservatives would achieve immigration reduction remained sparse, with Mrs Badenoch focusing more on framing the issue than outlining concrete mechanisms.
The speech represented an attempt to chart a path forward for a Conservative Party that suffered its worst electoral defeat in modern history, reduced to barely 100 MPs whilst Reform UK secured millions of votes and established itself as a genuine threat to Tory survival.
By invoking the pig-wrestling metaphor, Mrs Badenoch signalled she intends to differentiate the Conservatives from Reform through policy substance rather than engaging in the populist rhetoric that Mr Farage has mastered, though whether this strategy can win back disaffected voters remains uncertain.
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Image Credit:
Kemi Badenoch — official portrait (cropped), licensed under CC BY 4.0
