Brits should not get any more cost-of-living payments and millions of richer pensioners should lose their winter fuel cash, a Tory leadership candidate declared today.
Kemi Badenoch attacked “dead weight” funds to help people with soaring energy bills - and promised “limits on government spending” to fund tax cuts instead.
The 42-year-old former Equalities Minister, who became an MP in 2017, was set to hit 20 supporters needed to get on the ballot by 6pm - after a packed launch event where she was applauded by star backer Michael Gove.
Ms Badenoch hit out at her rivals, saying Tories should “stop pretending” they can cut taxes and the state can do everything it currently does.
"For too long politicians have been saying… you can have your cake and eat it. I'm here to tell you that's not the case,” she said.
She added: "I will not enter into a tax bidding war and say my tax cuts are bigger than yours. The dividing line in this race is not tax cuts, it's judgment."
It comes as Tory candidates race to promise bigger austerity cuts and tax cuts to appease Conservative members in a tight-fought race to replace Boris Johnson.
Ms Badenoch did not spell out how far she would cut back state services - after her rival Nadhim Zahawi vowed 20% cuts in every area including the NHS.
But she said there would be an end to cost-of-living payments like those offered by Rishi Sunak if she enters 10 Downing Street on September 5.
As Chancellor Mr Sunak gave £650 to benefit claimants, £300 to pensioners, £150 to disabled people and £400 to all energy bill-payers to cope with rocketing prices.
But Ms Badenoch said: “What I’m not going to do is come out with lots of micro policies about giving people £50 cash here or a rebate there.
“I think it’s very inefficient - there’s a lot of dead weight in how we run government.”
Ms Badenoch also called for the Winter Fuel Payment - worth between £250 to £600 and currently paid to all state pensioners - to be more means-tested.
She said: “I have people in my constituency telling me they don’t need the Winter Fuel Payments we give them because they can afford it. Why do we not have a more sophisticated mechanism of means testing.
“Those are the sort of long term things governments should be doing and haven’t been doing because we’re focusing always on short term news headline stuff for tomorrow.”
She added: “The cost of living crisis is the big thing we’re dealing with and inflation is what’s driving it and likely to make things worse.
“So tackling inflation - that’s what government should be doing. We need to get it under control, because if we don’t things could still get a lot worse.
“And I think if we focus on the things government should be doing, that only government can do, we will make it easier for people both in the short, medium and long term.
Ms Badenoch gave her speech at the headquarters of the think tank Policy Exchange, where makeshift paper signs were taped to the toilets showing they were for ‘men’ and ‘women’.
She devoted much of her 11-minute launch speech to ‘culture war’ spats, vowing to “discard the priorities of Twitter ” and “the Ben and Jerry’s tendency” for firms to put “social justice” over profit.
Ms Badenoch demanded police stop “worrying about hurt feelings online” and said “tick box exercises in sustainability, diversity and equality” were not the “core mission”.
She said “the right has lost its confidence and its courage”, the government has "caved in" to social justice campaigners, and branded the pledge to hit Net Zero emissions by 2050 "unilateral economic disarmament”.
MPs at her launch included Alex Burghart, Lucy Allan, Tom Hunt, Ben Bradley, Justin Tomlinson, Lee Anderson, Nigel Mills, Lee Rowley and Eddie Hughes.
Ms Badenoch looked set today to get on the ballot but supporters could not guarantee she would get through Wednesday’s first round of votes, where she would need 30 backers in a secret ballot.
As she spoke, Grant Shapps dropped out of the race to back Rishi Sunak while Boris Johnson loyalists Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries backed Liz Truss.
Ms Badenoch insisted “I’m not worried about Rishi, I’m not worried about Liz.”
She added: “I have a lot of respect for Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, I was junior minister to both of them.
“But I feel there needs to be a genuine debate in our party before we select the leader.” There shouldn’t be a “continuation of what we’ve had before with different personalities”, she added.
