Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has been on air for the past hour speaking to BBC local radio stations.

Here's what she said:

• Badenoch was pushed repeatedly on her immigration policies, which she says she has "toughened"
• Staying on immigration, Badenoch said those who arrive in the UK illegally should be deported and the UK's system needs "to stop being exploited"
• Defending her party's pledge to scrap the UK's landmark climate legislation, Badenoch said net zero plans are “not improving the environment”. “We’re not going to be able to improve our environment if we’ve got no money,” she added
• Badenoch was also pressed on whether the Tories would "water down" the Hillsborough Law, she said she had not "read it in full" yet, but "there might be things we can do to strengthen it"
• On the upcoming Conservative Party conference, she vows: "We’re going to show what the Conservative party under Kemi Badenoch looks like. I’m taking us back to our authentic roots”

As she was speaking on air, we learnt of an attack at a synagogue in Manchester in which four people have been injured and the attacker shot.

In response to the news, she called the attack “vile and disgusting” and stressed to the Jewish community across the UK that "Britain is a country which will look after you”.

This brings our coverage to an end, thanks for joining us.

Ewan Murrie
Politics reporter, Westminster

Kemi Badenoch has ruled out bringing in the military to help prevent small boats from crossing the English Channel.

The suggestion was made earlier this month by Donald Trump during a joint press conference with Keir Starmer.

The Conservative leader told BBC Radio Lincolnshire that it’s not something the military can do, citing “many complications” that she declined to elaborate on.

The idea was also previously dismissed by Labour’s Trade Secretary Peter Kyle – who told the BBC that UK Border Force has specific responsibility for policing UK borders.

Vanessa Pearce
BBC News, Midlands

Badenoch concludes her back-to-back interviews on BBC Hereford & Worcester, returning to the issue of immigration.

The leader told presenter Elliott Webb the party would be unveiling “even tougher policies” than Labour or Reform at the party’s conference next week.

She denied her party hadn’t tackled the issue of small boats saying the “problem hasn’t been around for 14 years”.

“A lot of people coming to our shores are not asylum seekers, they’re economic migrants,” she claims.

“This is not what asylum looks like. We need our system to stop being exploited,” she concludes.

Asha Patel
BBC News, East Midlands

BBC Radio Derby’s Ian Skye questions Badenoch on whether Baroness Michele Mone should be removed from the Lords.

On Monday, a High Court judge ruled that a company linked to Mone breached a contract with the government to supply sterile surgical gowns during the pandemic.

Mone was a Conservative peer but has had the whip removed.

Badenoch, who says she is trying to “win back the trust” in her party, said Mone had “brought a lot of embarrassment and shame to the party”.

She told Radio Derby: “They should throw the full book at her for every single criminal act or every single bit of wrongdoing that has taken place."

Kemi Badenoch's round of interviews on BBC local radio stations has come to an end. In our next posts we'll bring you her comments from her final interview, some analysis and a full recap of what we heard. Stay with us.

It's now the turn of BBC Radio Lincolnshire.

Recent elections have seen a turquoise wave sweep over the region, with Reform UK taking control of the county council and the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice becoming MP for Boston and Skegness.

Dame Andrea Jenkyns also secured a resounding victory to become Greater Lincolnshire's first elected mayor.

Asked about gaining back support, Badenoch said they could “win back trust” with “authentic Conservative principles”.

Presenter Frances Finn also asked if there were any local MPS on "defection watch"?

The Tory leader said: “I don’t think any of them are – many can see what it’s like having a Reform council and they don’t like it.”

Ewan Murrie
Politics reporter, Westminster

Also on BBC Merseyside, Kemi Badenoch makes strident criticism of a school which reportedly took pupils to the Labour conference, external in Liverpool to campaign for free school meals.

About 100 children from schools in the city handed a petition to the Prime Minister at the Labour Party conference.

The Tory leader says that it was wrong to use children as a “political football”, suggesting that their parents should have attended the protest instead of them.

The Tory leader insists that every child who needs a free school meal already receives one and says she’s strongly against making them universally available.

“People should not be using children to make bad political arguments… They need to be in school learning, not protesting.”

Claire Hamilton
Political reporter, BBC Mersesyide

The Conservative party leader tells BBC Merseyside's Tony Snell she rejects suggestions that Conservatives would “water down” the Hillsborough law.

The new legislation was only introduced a day before the Commons broke for recess ahead of the party conference in Manchester.

Badenoch says she had not "read it in full", but adds "there might be things we can do to strengthen it".

“I know how important this is to people in Liverpool," she says, adding: "What happened at Hillsborough was a national scandal.”

John Adderley
Political reporter

Kemi Badenoch has been defending her decision to scrap legally-binding targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions if she becomes Prime Minister.

She says a Conservative government would repeal the Climate Change Act and prioritise economic growth and cheaper energy instead.

She was asked on BBC Radio Solent whether this means she is a climate sceptic or denier?

Badenoch says she’s a net zero sceptic. She says net zero is just a slogan.

She defends drilling for gas – saying it’s a transition fuel and you need gas if you’re going to move to a fully renewable economy.

She says the government’s strategy isn’t working and is bankrupting our country. She says we should be importing less gas and drilling at home.

While Badenoch has been facing questions, we've had some breaking news from Manchester.

Four people have been injured in an incident at a synagogue in Manchester - you can follow our live coverage.

Asked about the attack, Badenoch tells BBC Radio Bristol that while she hasn't seen the full details, it "looks like an outrageous attack on the Jewish community on their holiest day".

“A vile and disgusting attack. I know that many Jewish people in our country feel they’re no longer safe and my heart goes out to the people who have been hurt by this and everyone who’s been affected."

She adds that "we need to make sure that the rise in antisemitism that we’re seeing in our country is quelled completely."

Ewan Murrie
Politics reporter, Westminster

During her round, Kemi Badenoch has tried to fend off the suggestion that she isn’t “cutting through” with the public.

She insisted her immediate priority is laying the groundwork to convince voters that the Conservatives are under new leadership.

Speaking to BBC Shropshire, she argued the party’s unique selling point was its willingness to take “tough decisions” – including cutting spending on areas such as sickness benefits.

But beyond citing the pandemic and blaming the last Labour government, she struggled to explain why taxes, spending and debt all soared during more than a decade of Conservative rule.

Vanessa Pearce
BBC News, Midlands

Questioned about her party’s pledge to scrap the UK’s climate legislation, she told BBC Radio Shropshire presenter Clare Ashford she was a “net zero sceptic, not a climate change sceptic”.

Current laws on the climate “can’t work, won’t work and are expensive” she says.

Insisting the public can trust the party with the climate and the economy she says she would put farmers at the forefront of the party’s climate change policies.

She adds that she will be setting out her economic policies at party conference next week.

Ewan Murrie
Politics reporter, Westminster

Speaking on BBC Shropshire, Kemi Badenoch claims Labour is targeting Reform UK because it is “terrified” of facing the Conservatives at the next General Election.

She pointed to what was she views as her strongest performance at Prime Minister’s Questions - delivered shortly before the dismissal of US Ambassador Peter Mandelson - as evidence that the Tories, not Reform, remain Labour’s main concern.

But while the Conservative leader did put Keir Starmer under pressure on that occasion, it’s a stretch to suggest that explains Labour’s focus on Nigel Farage’s party.

Polling continues to show Reform UK outpacing the Conservatives, while the list of high-profile Tory figures defecting to Mr Farage’s camp grows longer by the week.

Harriet Heywood
BBC News, Cambridgeshire

BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Chris Mann asked Kemi Badenoch how she would cope with the housing crisis in the area.

She again mentions tougher policies on immigration, and explains how they would help with the housing crisis.

“If you look at the numbers of people who have come into the country we have an excess demand, we need to tackle that, as well as tackle supply,” she said.

When asked about the Conservatives “losing ground” in the Cambridgeshire area - they only had two MPs elected in 2024 - she was keen to point out the Conservatives won the mayoral elections in Cambridge and Peterborough in May this year.

She went on to add it was significant that Labour “could not” retain the mayoral seat they won in 2021.

John Adderley
Political reporter

Kemi Badenoch has been talking about her style of leadership and is appealing for people to be patient and give her more time to turn things around after her party’s crushing defeat at last year’s general election.

She says it’s not just about coming up with new policies, it’s about re-gaining the trust of voters by telling them more about what kind of people are in her party.

Badenoch says defeat is going to take some time and work to come back from.

She told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire that she’s not going to things around overnight. She says “people want to know they can trust us. They want to know who I am.”

She’ll have a chance to say more about who she is and what she stands for when she makes her first speech as Tory leader at the party’s conference in Manchester next week.

Lewis Adams
Reporter

BBC Essex presenter Ben Fryer continues to push Badenoch on what her stance on immigration.

“We need to deport all foreign criminals and we don’t want people who have arrived here illegally claiming asylum,” Badenoch said.

She references protests that took place over summer in Epping after the arrest of an asylum seeker, who was later jailed for sexual offences.

Badenoch says she met with parents in the town who shared concerns with her about the housing of migrants at The Bell Hotel.

“I had a lady tell me she couldn’t jog around the park anymore because there were men hiding behind bushes,” she claims.

“That’s not fair and the government has to do something about it.”

Ewan Murrie
Politics reporter, Westminster

Speaking to BBC Essex, Kemi Badenoch insists she has “really toughened” her party’s stance on immigration.

Her immigration policies announced so far have included wanting to make it harder for new arrivals to permanently settle in the UK, and restricting access to benefits to UK citizens only.

It’s unclear what new immigration policies she will announce at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, but the big question is whether the Conservatives would choose to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The Tory leader has already set up a commission to examine the idea – which supporters say would make it easier for Britain to deport small boat migrants.

Kemi Badenoch's series of interviews on local BBC radio stations has kicked off on BBC Essex.

We'll bring you the key lines and analysis over the next hour - watch live above, and stay with us.

Kemi Badenoch will shortly be speaking on BBC Essex for the first of her quickfire interviews on local radio stations.

You can follow along by tapping the watch live button at the top of this page.

Ahead of Badenoch's radio round, there's been a bit of news from the Conservatives this morning.

The party has pledged to scrap the UK's landmark climate change legislation and replace it with a strategy for "cheap and reliable" energy.

The Climate Change Act 2008, which put targets for cutting emissions into law, was introduced by the last Labour government and strengthened under Tory PM Theresa May.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch says her party wants to leave "a cleaner environment for our children" - but argues "Labour's laws tied us in red tape, loaded us with costs, and did nothing to cut global emissions".

Environmental groups say the move would be an act of "national self-harm", while Labour says it would be "an economic disaster and a total betrayal of future generations".

Badenoch has previously said the target of net zero by 2050 is "impossible" for the UK to meet and promised to "maximise" extraction of oil and gas from the North Sea.

• Read more about this policy announcement here

Image source, PA Media

Kemi Badenoch, who has led the Conservative Party since November 2024, is known for dividing opinion, even within her own party.

Born in Wimbledon in 1980, Olukemi Adegoke was one of three children of Nigerian parents. Her father worked as a GP and her mother was a physiology professor.

She grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, and in the US where her mother lectures. She returned to the UK in 2016 and studied for her A-levels at a college in south London, before completing a degree in computer engineering at Sussex University.

At the age of 25, Badenoch joined the Conservatives. Five years later she went on to make unsuccessful bids for Parliament, and then the London Assembly in 2012. In 2015, she took a vacant Assembly seat.

She backed Brexit in the 2016 referendum before achieving her ambition of becoming an MP a year later, in the safe Conservative seat of Saffron Walden in Essex.

Eight years later, Badenoch secured her position as leader of the Conservative Party, beating Robert Jenrick to replace Rishi Sunak.

As the first black woman to lead a major UK political party she has made history, saying she would bring in big changes to the party.

Her time in Parliament has since been characterised by her straightforwardness and willingness to engage in controversial issues.

• For more on Badenoch's path to Conservative Party Leader, read our story