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Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch today promised a series of tax-cutting measures aimed at \u201cgetting Britain working again\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms Badenoch intends to rip up Ed Miliband\u2019s net zero \u201cvanity targets\u201d, scrap the tax on family farms and cut the \u201cbloated benefits bill\u201d. <\/p>\n
She also wants to scrap business rates for pubs and high street shops and abolish the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax on people\u2019s homes.<\/p>\n
In a speech to the party\u2019s Scottish conference, she pledged to \u201csave this country from a path of economic suicide led by the Labour Party in Westminster and by the SNP here in Scotland\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said the SNP had spent the last two decades \u201cletting Scotland down\u201d. It had the highest tax burden anywhere in the UK\u201d which left Scots in a \u201clow growth doom loop\u201d where \u00a31 in every \u00a37 spent by the Scottish Government goes on benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cScotland has lost out on \u00a312 billion of growth since the SNP took power because they don\u2019t care at all about the economy,\u201d she told the conference at Murrayfield stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod knows how many people have missed out on opportunities because of that \u2013 not getting a first job, missing out on the chance of promotion, businesses going under. The SNP have robbed Scotland of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turning to Labour\u2019s record she said that if it wasn\u2019t for the work of Conservatives, family farms in Scotland would soon be being broken up.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you imagine how cruel you\u2019d have to be, how stupid, to want to see Scotland\u2019s farming industry broken up?<\/p>\n
\u201cFamilies that have reared livestock in Aberdeenshire for generations, grown barley in the Borders, having to sell up because of Labour\u2019s ignorance? Shameful.\u201d<\/p>\n She said her party would scrap the \u201cvindictive\u201d family farms tax and accused Labour and the SNP of not understanding or caring about rural Scotland.<\/p>\n She added: \u201cWe need to hammer home the message that it not government that creates growth, it is business that creates growth. It is business that innovates. It is business that creates jobs. Government needs to create the conditions for business to do that.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to cut taxes, we need to bring the welfare bill down, and make it make sense to work again.<\/p>\n \u201cUnemployment has gone up every single month since Labour took office. Youth unemployment is now higher in the UK than the EU for the first time ever.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Badenoch accused Energy Secretary Ed Miliband of exporting energy jobs to China.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is killing off the British energy industry and our energy security to meet a load of self-imposed vanity targets here at home, while importing wind turbines and solar panels from a country building a new coal-fired power station every other week.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Scotland, for every three jobs being lost in oil and gas only one is created in green energy. The other jobs are being exported abroad.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s Reform\u2019s bright idea to fix this? To part nationalise oil and gas. Let me tell you\u2026 the last thing the oil and gas industry needs is politicians running their businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n She said the Conservatives have a plan for cheap, reliable British energy. The party would rip up the net zero targets and replace them with a \u201cstrategy that works\u201d.<\/p>\n Her party would overturn the ban on supporting oil and gas technology exports, scrap the Energy Profits Levy, or windfall tax, and scrap the ban on new oil and gas licences.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was in Aberdeen I was horrified to hear the SNP are costing Scotland\u2019s oil and gas sector one thousand jobs a month.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has got to end. Under my leadership we are going to champion our own industry and we are going to put Scotland at the heart of our energy industry for the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n Addressing the row over the Lord Advocate giving First Minister John Swinney a tip-off about the details of the charges against former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, she repeated Mr Findlay\u2019s assertion that it \u201csmacks of corruption\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n She added: \u201cIt is an absurd state of affairs that the Lord Advocate is currently in charge of an organisation prosecuting a case against a senior SNP figure whilst being in the SNP Government\u2019s cabinet.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, today I can announce the Conservatives would end this conflict of interest and split the Lord Advocate\u2019s role so this can never happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n Responding to the speech, Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said:\u00a0\u201cThis weekend Scottish Tories are flooding in their dozens to what could be their most dismal conference yet. <\/p>\n \u201cDespite Kemi Badenoch\u2019s best effort to stir up some enthusiasm, there is no escaping the fact the Scottish Tories are a spent force.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Tories can\u2019t stop the SNP \u2013 they can\u2019t even stop their own politicians from abandoning them in their droves.<\/p>\n \u201cScots are being let down by an SNP government that can\u2019t even get the basics right, but only Scottish Labour can get rid of this failing SNP government and deliver a better future for Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n \t <\/div>\n![\"Farm](\"https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Farm-protest-in-London.png\")
![\"Ed](\"https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Ed-Miliband-on-Laura-Victoria-Derbyshire-19-10-25.png\")