Former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch has put herself forward as a candidate to become the new prime minister, promising “limited government” and “a focus on the essentials”. The MP for Saffron Walden said she supported lower taxes “to boost growth and productivity, and accompanied by tight spending discipline”.
Writing in The Times, she also hit out at “identity politics” and said Boris Johnson was “a symptom of the problems we face, not the cause of them”. She said: “People are exhausted by platitudes and empty rhetoric. Loving our country, our people or our party is not enough.
“What’s missing is an intellectual grasp of what is required to run the country in an era of increased polarisation, protectionism and populism amplified by social media.”
