Overview

• Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride detailed a £47bn savings plan centred on welfare, aid and the civil service, including cutting overseas aid to 0.1% of GDP and laying off more than 130,000 civil servants.
• Key welfare measures would bar most non‑UK citizens from benefits, affecting roughly 470,000 current claimants, tighten eligibility for personal independence payments for milder mental‑health conditions and scrap a £1bn VAT exemption for the Motability scheme; EU settled‑status holders would be exempt.
• From the Manchester stage, senior Tories branded Nigel Farage and Reform UK the "party of more spending and more debt," citing plans such as nationalising utilities and scrapping the two‑child benefit cap.
• Signs of strain were visible at the conference, with reports of thin attendance, councillor defections to Reform UK and a YouGov survey showing about half of Tory members do not want Kemi Badenoch to lead into the next election and many favour a pact with Reform.
• On Tuesday, Badenoch insisted the gathering is "a very good conference," ruled out an electoral deal with Reform and said quitting the European Convention on Human Rights could risk EU trade ties but would not automatically end the agreement.