Kemi Badenoch announced on Saturday that a Conservative government would abolish the £100,000 childcare "cliff edge", a £700m-a-year commitment funded by cutting jobs at arm's-length public bodies, on the eve of her party's conference in Birmingham. The pledge landed the same day the Guardian published leaked remarks from shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith saying the party would "need to go further" than the £47bn of cuts it has already announced, a new Opinium poll put Labour on 30 per cent, and Nigel Farage defended Reform UK's £72m in crypto donations. This is UKFCP's 24 hours in politics round-up.
Parliament is away for the conference season, with the Conservatives gathering in Birmingham from Sunday, a week after Andy Burnham's first conference as Labour leader and prime minister. His government, formed on 20 July, is approaching eleven weeks old, with John Healey's first Budget as chancellor still to come.
Badenoch opens conference with £700m childcare offer
Badenoch said the Conservatives would scrap the rule under which the entire entitlement to 30 hours of funded childcare is withdrawn if one parent earns more than £100,000. Under the proposal, reported by the BBC, the Guardian and the Press Association, any parent working at least 16 hours a week would qualify, at a cost of around £700m a year, paid for through reductions in civil service headcount at bodies including Arts Council England and the Environment Agency.
"Conservatives believe that you shouldn't be punished for working more, but this childcare cliff edge does exactly that," Badenoch said.
The threshold was introduced under the previous Conservative government. A Labour spokesperson said it "tells you everything you need to know about the Tories that the first of their own tax policies they want to unpick is one helping higher earners". City AM reported the costing draws on research by the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation, which estimated nearly 12,000 parents hold their income below £100,000 to keep the entitlement.
Leak points to Tory cuts beyond £47bn
The Guardian published leaked comments made by Griffith to Conservative members last year, when he was shadow business secretary, in which he said the shadow cabinet had discussed going beyond the savings already signed off.
"The rate at which the economy is deteriorating, as well as our ambition to cut more taxes, means that we will have to find further savings, and I'm up for that in my department," Griffith said, according to the recording.
The paper reported the remarks suggest cuts similar in scale to the austerity years. Badenoch committed a further £4bn of reductions on Friday, including £2.5bn from the aid budget, leaving it at about £1bn a year, and £1bn from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The Conservatives did not respond on the record to the leak. The Guardian's report has not been independently corroborated.
Opinium puts Labour on 30 per cent
An Opinium poll for the Observer, conducted after Burnham's conference speech, put Labour up two points on 30 per cent, its highest rating since 2024, and ahead of Reform UK. The survey indicated Burnham's announcements on Brexit, social care and pensions were popular with voters.
Burnham was the only leader tested with a positive net approval rating, on plus eight, against minus one for Badenoch, minus six for Ed Davey and minus 22 each for Zack Polanski and Farage.
"The question now is simple: can Kemi Badenoch seize the country's attention next week in anything like the same way?" said James Crouch, Opinium's head of policy and public affairs.
Opinium's previous published wave, on 25 September, already had Labour four points clear of Reform on 28 to 24.
Farage defends £72m in crypto donations
Farage told the Independent on Saturday evening that people had been "quite impressed" by the £72m donated to Reform UK by crypto billionaires, insisting the sums had won his party "grudging respect". He shrugged off recent falls in the party's polling.
The donations, reported in September by Forbes and others, included a further £4m from BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo after a pardon by Donald Trump, and face a clawback fight. Reform UK stood at 23.3 per cent in PollCheck's rolling average of seven polls, updated on 1 October, behind Labour on 27.1 per cent and ahead of the Conservatives on 19.3 per cent.
Also in the last 24 hours
- Badenoch called for a "crack down" on threats to politicians, telling the BBC the position facing MPs was "really tough".
- Arriving at the conference venue to cheers from supporters, Badenoch told the BBC: "We are a new Conservative Party."
- Shadow education secretary Laura Trott joined Badenoch to trail the childcare policy at a visit with parents and toddlers.
- Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said Trump was "absolutely right" that the UK must spend more on defence, according to the Independent.
- Writing in the Guardian, Phillip Inman said Burnham had "seemed to slam on the brakes" after promising to rewire the economy, with local government reorganisation among the reforms on hold.
- The Mirror reported that Badenoch had been branded "out of touch" over her stance on fox hunting after footage emerged near Lower Swell in Gloucestershire. The footage could not be independently verified.
- The i Paper reported that Polanski is contesting the Holborn and St Pancras by-election next week, with a Gaza debate overshadowing the Green conference.
The Conservative conference opens in Birmingham on Sunday, when Badenoch's interview with Laura Kuenssberg is broadcast.
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