Tory conference latest: Kemi Badenoch defends saying she 'became working class' while working at McDonald's (2025)

Kemi Badenoch is now asked about her position on the war between Israel and Hamas.

She says "Israel has the right to defend itself" and "the UK is an ally".

"We cannot stand with Hezbollah. We cannot stand with Hamas," she says.

Ms Badenoch goes on to say: "Islamist terrorism is something that should never be appeased.

"Israel is at the frontline, and it is surrounded by a lot of enemies.

"I think what they are doing is extraordinary. People said getting the leader of Hezbollah couldn't be done, people ask Israel to do things like be more targeted so they don't harm civilians.

"They did that amazing thing with the pagers and when they did that they were criticised for it.

"They are always criticised, and I am very sympathetic to the Israeli argument."

Palestinians 'caught in the middle'

Ms Badenoch also says "we must not forget the Palestinian people who are not Hamas".

"They are unfortunately caught in the middle of this terrible war. I think we should do all we can to help them."

Now, Kemi Badenoch is asked if she would restore the winter fuel payment to pensioners set to lose it this year.

"Certainly to a lot of them, not to the millionaires - sorry millionaires," she says.

She says the "real issue with winter fuel is that the government is making energy more expensive".

"If it's doing that then it needs to look after those people who don't earn enough or who can't increase their earnings," she adds.

Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, the most senior member of the Civil Service, has announced he will step down at the end of the year.

He is resigning on health grounds, saying "whilst the spirit remains willing, the body is not".

In a letter to his Civil Service colleagues, Mr Case said he informed Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer today that he will step down at the end of the year.

He said: "As many of you know, I have been undergoing medical treatment for a neurological condition over the last 18 months and, whilst the spirit remains willing, the body is not.

"It is a shame that I feel I have to spell this out, but my decision is solely to do with my health and nothing to do with anything else."

Mr Case said his replacement will be appointed after a "full, open and transparent process which will be run by the First Civil Service Commissioner, in line with the requirements set out in the Cabinet Manual".

He said it has been an "honour to serve two sovereigns, four prime ministers and over 120 cabinet ministers in this role".

"There have been far more ups than downs along the way and by far the greatest highlight has been the privilege of working with so many remarkable public servants, across the length and breadth of our country, in our overseas posts and with counterparts from our close allies and partners around the world."

Next, Kemi Badenoch is asked what she would do to support freedom of speech.

She says: "We need to look at a lot of the legislation we have put in.

"Some of it is very confusing. Hate crime legislation has expanded where we have non hate crime incidents, which I still don't understand. Those are the things that came in under a Conservative government.

"It happens when we are trying to appease the left, and trying to show that we are nice people."

Ms Badenoch says Tories need to "do what is right, rather than virtue signal and do what we think looks nice".

She adds: "We have made a big hash of free speech laws."

However, the former minister does admit: "What we have in this country is amazing.

"There are places where you can't say anything about the government or you will end up unalive the next day.

"They will make you unalive."

Asked who the Conservatives need to focus on defeating between the Liberal Democrats and Reform, Kemi Badenoch says "anyone who is not a Conservative has got to be defeated".

She says: "I don't believe Reform are real Conservatives. They, like the Lib Dems, are not serious people."

Ms Badenoch notes though that "Reform voters are our people".

"Reform are not serious, but it is now our job to make sure we squeeze them out. They are parking their tanks on our lawn, and we need to get them off," she adds.

Asked if she would let Nigel Farage in, she goes on to say: "No.

"I wouldn't let Keir Starmer in either."

Next, Kemi Badenoch was asked why she believes the Conservatives lost the general election in July.

"We lost for a whole host of reasons," she says. "There's a general fatigue that comes with being in government for a long time, and some people will just want change - there's nothing we could have done about that.

"But we made it worse."

Ms Badenoch notes that the Tories lost in a "historic defeat".

"We have to make sure that this doesn't happen again."

The former minister says the UK now has a "Labour government who nobody really likes".

"They're making a whole hash of things," she says, later adding all they have done is "bad stuff".

Ms Badenoch says the Conservatives need to "get ourselves off the ground" and start being "real Conservatives".

Kemi Badenoch is now asked about her comments on maternity pay, which she has come under fire for.

As we reported earlier, Ms Badenoch called the current level of the benefit "excessive" in an interview with Times Radio.

She later claimed her comments were "misrepresented".

Speaking on her comments, she says maternity pay "is quite important".

"When you are a leader, when you are a Conservative, when you are making the argument for Conservative principles, your opponents are going to try to turn it into something else," she says.

"We need to decide who's going to be leader of the party - not the left, not the Guardian, not the BBC. Just Conservatives."

Asked about her use of the word "excessive", she goes on to say that she was "interrupted as I was answering a different question".

"I was trying to explain that when we talk about micro policy we forget the first principles," she adds.

Up now is Conservative Party hopeful Kemi Badenoch, who is asked about her claim that she "became working class" when working at McDonald's as a teenager.

She says that it wasn't working at the fast food chain that made her working class, "it was an example of how I had become working class".

Ms Badenoch explains that she wasn't working at McDonald's "part-time" or "at the weekend", but "that was my job".

"I was going to college part-time."

The former minister explains how she had left her middle class upbringing in Nigeria where she was "driven to school every day".

She says the first time she ever used a bus was in the UK.

"I couldn't even afford bus money most of the time, I had to walk everywhere."

Ms Badenoch says she had to do everything on her own from an early age.

"If that is not working class, I don't know what is."

Kemi Badenoch is facing a live Q&A at Tory party conference.

The shadow housing secretary will face host journalist Christopher Hope and then questions from party members.

You can watch live in the stream below or at the top of this page, and we'll bring you the best bits as updates here in the Politics Hub.

On the topic of climate change, Tom Tugendhat says "too many people forget the word net" in "net zero".

"They just hear the word zero, and that's what [Ed] Miliband is doing," the former security minister adds.

"If you can tell me any of the policies that Ed Miliband has got at the moment that are not going to destroy Britain, I'd be delighted to hear them."

Mr Tugendhat claims that "every single policy" Labour have is "designed to make electricity and power more expensive, harder to get and more vulnerable to foreign" nations.

He says GB Energy is "utter rubbish" and "completely insane".

The ex-minister says he "doesn't accept" that the world is in a climate emergency.