In conversation with Conservatives' Kemi Badenoch

Kemi Badenoch discussed issues including the rise of Reform

BBC South's political editor Peter Henley has been speaking to party leaders, or deputy leaders, during the autumn party conferences.

They have been discussing some of the key issues facing the south of England and explaining what they plan to do.

Next up is Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, who talked about the rise of Reform UK, policies to tackle climate change, and how her party restores trust with voters.

BBC South's political editor Peter Henley spoke to Badenoch ahead of the Conservative Party conference

Peter Henley: The South of England was your powerhouse - two thirds of those MPs in the sea of blue have lost their seats. What do you say to your supporters when another one leaves to join Reform?

Kemi Badenoch: What I would say is that we had an historic defeat last year and we need to win back the public trust. That is what I'm doing.

The party is under new leadership, we've acknowledged the mistakes that we made when we were last in government, but we've got to draw a line under that and look at what is happening now.

Our economy is in free-fall, unemployment has increased every single month since Labour came into office.

There's only one party that can deliver both a strong economy and strong borders, and that's the Conservatives.

PH: So why are so many people supporting Nigel Farage?

KB: Because right now, Nigel Farage is not Labour and he's not Conservative, and people are very angry with the current government but they still are not ready to go back to Conservatives.

It takes a while, oppositions previously were in opposition for 13, 14 and 18 years - I haven't even been doing this a year, so it does take time.

PH: So you're not coming back at the next election?

KB: No, that's not what I said.

It takes time, but we have to make sure that we do this the right way, by being honest with the public and the scale of the challenge.

Nigel Farage is offering free giveaways. He's going to increase welfare, he's going to nationalise things, lots of tax cuts - none of it adds up.

That's not real. Telling people things that cannot happen is not fair, it's not right and I'm not going to do it.

PH: But people say your long policy review has meant a vacuum - you've walked away from the playing field at a time when you could have been countering what was going on.

KB: And we have countering, it has not been a vacuum.

We came out with the toughest immigration policy we have ever had, tougher than any other party to the point where both Labour and Reform have been copying, badly, our new policies on indefinite leave to remain (in the country).

We are doing the policy work, but simply announcing policy is not enough.

You have to show that you've changed, so I'm showing that the Conservative Party has changed.

We recoginse where we've made mistakes and at our conference there's going to be even more [policy announcements].

But just announcing things without working out how you do them is not real and it's not honest.

PH: One thing which the Conservative governments of the past achieved was the greenest government ever - pushing coal off the grid, building up renewables. Have you spoken to David Cameron about abandoning all of his achievements?

KB: Yes I have, and he agrees with me.

What I have been saying is that we must have a cleaner, better environment, but we cannot deliver it by bankrupting our country.

A lot of the targets which we said we're removing, the Climate Change Act, they're not working, they're not delivering anything. We're just driving industry out of our country.

We're the only country complying with the Paris Agreement - in the meantime jobs are disappearing.

Unemployment has risen every single month since Labour came into office, these things are getting worse. Even when we were in government we recognized that the electric vehicle mandate was not working.

If something's not working, you've got to let it go.

PH: And when will your new approach work - will it be at the local elections, or have you got longer before people understand where you're coming from?

KB: I think people need to hear our story again and again.

Right now there is still fatigue from the last Conservative government, Labour is still in office - my job is to keep going and make sure that people see that we've returned to authentic Conservative principles.