Politics is rarely polite, and sometimes the sharpest words come from unexpected quarters.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has delivered one such blow to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, arguing that his government has lost the moral authority to impose new taxes on family homes.
Writing for The Mail on Sunday, she doesn’t mince words, and her critique lands at the heart of Labour’s ongoing struggles with credibility and leadership.
A Government Slow to Face the Truth
The controversy stems from Angela Rayner’s property dealings, which were first revealed by this newspaper two weeks ago.
Rayner, Labour’s Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Minister, was apparently aware of the issues but failed to be fully forthcoming.
Starmer, as her boss, had every opportunity to question her actions—but the administration took its time admitting the facts.
Badenoch paints a picture of a government that is not just careless but fundamentally reluctant to act.
“By itself, this was no more than personal carelessness on the part of a senior minister,” she writes.
Yet in the bigger picture, it highlights a Labour Party struggling to govern effectively, stumbling from one crisis into another with almost comical slowness.
Hypocrisy and the Threat to Homeowners
The former minister argues that Labour’s planned taxes on family homes verge on hypocrisy.
Why the push for higher levies on homeowners? Badenoch says it’s because the party lacks the courage to confront Britain’s bloated and unfair benefits system.
Rather than making tough decisions, Labour has chosen to target those who have saved and worked hard—a tactic that she calls both insulting and economically short-sighted.
Leadership and the Courage to Face Reality
Badenoch points out that any true leader must be willing to explain difficult truths to their followers.
Labour, she argues, has failed spectacularly in this regard.
The modern Left, she suggests, sees people with savings as targets rather than responsible citizens, and Starmer, despite his softer tone, shares the same mindset.
Even Starmer’s pledges during the last election, she notes, were misleading.
His promises not to raise taxes on “working people” conveniently excluded millions of individuals who have diligently built savings or assets.
Badenoch’s argument is clear: the Prime Minister has no right to punish these families to fix problems of his own making.
A Lesson from History
The piece closes with a nod to historical Labour values.
Badenoch reminds readers that the party of Clement Attlee understood the importance of targeted welfare and responsible leadership.
The contrast with today’s Labour, she argues, could not be starker.
Under Rayner and Starmer, policy decisions seem driven more by ideology than by fairness, leaving homeowners and hard-working families exposed to unnecessary financial strain.