Kemi Badenoch pledges to end £100,000 childcare 'Cliff Edge' ahead of conservative conference
UK's Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch pledges to dismantle the £100,000 childcare earnings trap, allowing working parents to qualify for free weekly care without penalty
Speaking at the party's annual conference in Birmingham, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch announced a major policy pledge aimed at dismantling the UK's £100,000 childcare "cliff edge".
Under the proposed changes, the party would scrap the existing rule where families lose their entire entitlement to 30 hours of government-funded weekly childcare if a single parent crosses the six-figure salary threshold.
Badenoch branded the current system "absurd," arguing that it actively penalizes hard work, forces parents to turn down promotions, and disproportionately harms women balancing career progression with family life.
The revised policy would open 30 hours of free care to all parents working 16 hours or more a week, regardless of income caps.
Projected to cost £700 million annually, the plan would be funded through targeted reductions in civil service headcounts across select public bodies.
The announcement marks an effort by Badenoch to distance her leadership from legacy policies, drawing immediate pushback from the Labour government, which defended its ongoing early-years reviews and primary school breakfast club expansions.
Gathering in Birmingham, the Conservatives are using the four-day event to refresh their policy platform after trailing behind Labour and Reform UK.
Positioning herself as a "classic old-school Conservative," Badenoch emphasized common sense and rewarding hard effort.
In her interview with the BBC, Badenoch pitched herself as a "classic old-school Conservative" adding: "I believe in common sense-people working hard and being rewarded for that effort."
Badenoch insisted the Tories would keep the state pension triple lock, which Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to change if Labour wins the next election.
She said the policy, under which state pensions rise each year by the highest of inflation, average wages, or 2.5%, was "the right policy for pensioners".
She added, "What we don't want to see is people going after the elderly, chasing after vulnerable and disabled people, and then the extremely large cohort of people who can work, who are not working, are left alone."
The Conservatives have long called on the government to cut the growing welfare budget including by implementing tighter restrictions on claimants.
