Tories launch £10bn missile defence plan as Badenoch bets on bold pitch to rebuild party's fortunes

From the Newshound archive · first published 5 October 2026 · last updated 7 October 2026.

At the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Kemi Badenoch will announce a £2.3bn pledge to cut employers' National Insurance contributions for workers aged 21 to 24 in half, reducing the rate from 15 per cent to 7.5 per cent. The policy takes aim at the 750,000 young people currently out of work — a figure 174,000 higher than when Labour came to power — who Badenoch argues have been hammered by Rachel Reeves's £25bn NI hike, rising youth minimum wages and a raft of new employment regulations. Badenoch will tell delegates that Britain is facing 'a battle for the soul of this nation' of a magnitude unseen since Thatcher took on Labour in the 1970s.

Youth unemployment has risen by 174,000 under Labour, with over a million young people neither earning nor learning.

Shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith says Labour is 'destroying the future of our young people' after the 2024 NI hike.