“Shame on you for celebrating Margaret Thatcher!”
Activists from Climate Resistance disrupted Kemi Badenoch’s keynote at the Margaret Thatcher conference, hosted by right-wing think tank, The Centre for Policy Studies.
Two protesters held “Abolish Billionaires” and “Wealth Tax Now” banners, and slammed the Tories’ record on inequality, and the cost-of-living and climate crisis.
One protester interrupted Badenoch’s speech and stood on a chair with an “Abolish Billionaires” banner.
The protestor shouted: “How can you sit here celebrating Margaret Thatcher?
“Kemi Badenoch, your party, since Thatcher, has been the architect of the mass inequality and the unfair distribution of wealth we’ve seen in this country and globally.”
Badenoch tried to resume her speech, stating: “Today we honour Margaret Thatcher, clearly some are still quite terrified by her,” before another woman interrupted her.
The Tory leader then laughed and said: “This is just like my election hustings”.
Climate Resistance activists heckled her at a hustings in her constituency before the general election last July.
Another protestor said: “Shame on you for celebrating Margaret Thatcher! She set us on a path of climate breakdown, mass inequality and the cost-of-living crisis”.
The conference marked the 100th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher’s birth, and the 50th anniversary of her first one-to-one meeting with Ronald Reagan, shaping her embrace of free market policies and de-regulation.
One of the Climate Resistance activists shouted: “You want to talk about the future of conservatism? There will be no future!”
In her speech, Mrs Badenoch said that she would be launching “the Conservative Party’s biggest policy renewal programme in 50 years” tomorrow.
She told the Centre for Policy Studies’ conference: “We’re not announcing detailed policies tomorrow, but we know where we need to get to.
“We know that we will cut taxes and scrap burdensome regulations so businesses can grow, jobs can be created and hard work is rewarded.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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