Kemi Badenoch plans to scrap £100,000 free childcare cap as Tory conference opens

Kemi Badenoch has opened the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham by promising to scrap the £100,000 earnings cap on free childcare in England.

She unveiled the plan with a nursery visit on the eve of the conference and repeated it as the event began. Under the current system, working parents in England can claim 30 hours of government-funded childcare a week, but the entitlement is lost entirely if either parent earns more than £100,000 a year. Badenoch says she would remove that limit so higher-earning families can keep the support. Parents would still need to work at least 16 hours a week to qualify.

She argues the cap acts as a cliff edge that pushes some people to turn down promotions or cut their hours to stay under the threshold. "It doesn't matter whether they're earning £10,000 or £100,000. What matters is that people are out there working and I want them to know that Conservatives support them," she said.

Asked whether someone earning £1 million a year would receive free childcare under a Conservative government, she said: "As I said, it doesn't matter what you earn. We don't want you to be punished for working harder." She pointed to a deputy headteacher moving from £85,000 to £110,000 while raising three children, who could lose tens of thousands of pounds.

The policy has drawn criticism. Some say the estimated £700 million cost would be better spent helping poorer families, who can struggle to access early years care. One critic said the money should go on making sure every child has access to care and education, rather than "topping up some of the highest earners in the country". Badenoch rejected suggestions to taper the support or means test it, calling such cases negligible and saying the focus should be on most people in work.

In a later interview, the Shadow Minister for Women and Equality, Joy Morrissey, said the policy would be paid for by job cuts at the Arts Council and the Environment Agency. She framed it as a way to stop women losing out on pay rises and promotions because of childcare costs, and said it would improve social mobility.

Badenoch also used the conference to say she would keep the pensions triple lock, despite having previously described it as unsustainable. She said the real problem in the economy is the number of people who can work but do not, not pensioners on modest incomes. Elsewhere she set out her pitch as a "classic old school Conservative", promising lower taxes, a smaller state and welfare as a safety net rather than a lifestyle.

She published a personal manifesto called The Right Way, a document of around 30,000 words, and told the conference she wanted to bring back a party that knows what it stands for and who its people are. The conference has leaned heavily on images of Margaret Thatcher, and Badenoch has drawn comparisons with the former prime minister's approach.

The political backdrop remains difficult. The Conservatives are still third in most opinion polls, behind both Labour and Reform UK, even though Badenoch's personal ratings have improved. Labour, under Prime Minister Andy Burnham, has been energised by a "Burnham bounce", and Reform UK has been mired in questions about donations. A senior Conservative figure said many in the public still do not trust the party or believe it has changed, and that winning those voters back will take "many hard yards".