Tories offer nothing to workers, says TUC after Badenoch vows to scrap inheritance tax

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She told members in Birmingham that the next general election will be a “battle for the soul of the nation” and that her party would focus on letting people “keep more of what they earn” if it returned to power.

She also accused Andy Burnham’s Labour of being “addicted to welfare” and treating income and savings as “theirs to take and hand out,” cash she pledged to raise the threshold for death duties to £500,000.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “This is a tax paid only by the very richest estates — 95 per cent pay no inheritance tax at all. Cutting it would do nothing for ordinary people.

“This is the same old Tory playbook: cutting taxes for their rich mates and leaving working people to pick up the bill. They are a party for inherited wealth, not workers.”

On the pledge to scrap the Employment Rights Act, he added: “The Tories want to strip away your rights at work — from day-one sick pay to protection from fire and rehire on worse pay and conditions.

“Make no mistake — if the Conservatives get their way bad bosses will be allowed to run amok.”

Echoing former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher, Ms Badenoch claimed her party, which is behind Labour and narrowly trailing Reform in opinion polls, offers “the right way” to deliver growth and a “stronger country.”

The Tories have put the economy top of the agenda at their conference this autumn, focusing less on the so-called “culture wars” that dominated previous years as they seek to draw clear battle lines with the ruling party.

Labour in turn said the Conservatives’ new policy platform showed they were “prioritising the wealthiest” while doing nothing to help “ordinary struggling families.”

Labour Party chair Bridget Phillipson said: “The Tories haven’t changed. Kemi Badenoch has shown that the Tories’ choice is to do nothing to help ordinary families struggling with the cost of social care, prioritising the wealthiest instead. 

“Only Labour will build a national care service, with free personal care for all older people who need it.”