Badenoch claims ‘we haven’t called it Iron Dome’ – despite Tories using phrase in their press release
Q: You say your Iron Dome will protect the whole of the UK, and bases abroad. But Sir Richard Barrons, the former general, has said that a proper air defence like this would cost up to £100bn.
Badenoch says Barrons is referring to an Israel-style Iron Dome.
She says she is referring to something different. She says the UK should be able to defend itself from, for example, someone on a boat firing a drone at the system.
Q: But it is nothing like Israel’s Iron Dome. It is a gimmick, isn’t it?
Badenoch replied:
It’s not going to be exactly like the Iron Dome. We haven’t called it an Iron Dome.
But, in fact, they did. This is what they sent out to journalists yesterday.
Key events
Q: Do you agree with Jeffrey Archer that politics has become too tribal?
Badenoch says politics is very tribal now. People live in echo chambers.
But she says she thinks people can unite around common sense.
Q: People don’t agree with you on welfare cuts?
Badenoch says the UK is not a country of welfare. People believe in work. The Conservatives are for people who think that, she says.
She says the Tories won in Aberdeen South by attracting voters who were not natural Conservatives.
Q: Are you ruling out coalitions?
Badenoch says the problems of the last government started with the coalition. People had voted Conservative, but they did not get a Conservative government.
She says she wants to ensure that does not happen again.
Reform UK peopl are “not our kind of people”, she says. She says they don’t have high standards.
Q: What would you do in the event of a hung parliament? Would you work with Reform UK?
Badenoch says he does not accept the premise of the question. It is not about uniting the right. It is about uniting the country, she says.
She says even the trade unions agree with her about drilling in the North Sea.
Badenoch says Andy Burnham is not taking tough decisions.
Q: You say he should call an election. But you are polling even lower than you were in 2024. If there is an election now, you won’t be able to turn it round.
Badenoch says people look at who the leader is.
Winning the election is the start, not the end, she says.
She says Labour took office but did not know what it wanted to do. She won’t do that, she says.
She says she has a strong team, a plan, and it’s “all about common sense”.
Q: You are more popular in the polls than your party? Why has that not helped your party?
Badenoch says people still blame the party for what the last government did. She claims people know who is in her shadow cabinet.
Q: Do they?
They do, Badenoch insists.
Badenoch blames papers for describing what Tories called ‘Iron Dome’ plan as an ‘Iron Dome’
Kemi Badenoch is on the Today programme now. Anna Foster is interviewing.
Foster starts by asking about the “Britannia Shield”. Badenoch says that is what they have called it. Foster says in the press released they referred to it as a version of an Iron Dome.
Badenoch says what they are proposing is not like the Israeli version.
Q: £1bn a year won’t get you anywhere close to what you are suggesting here?
Badenoch says they are designing something for the UK.
Q: So why call it the Iron Dome?
Badenoch says Foster will have to ask the papers about that. She says the Tories are calling it a Britannia Shield.
Asked about cutting inheritance tax, Badenoch told Times Radio:
Even though I want to cut inheritance tax – I’ve given speeches about how I think it is a very bad tax – I’ve been particularly influenced by what we’ve seen over the last couple of years, farmers taking their lives because of them …
But we have to find the money to pay for it. What we’re not doing is just cutting taxes willy nilly. We need to find the savings.
Badenoch complains interviewer ‘splitting hairs’ when asked if all UK, or just infrastructure, protected by ‘Britannia Shield’
On the missile defence plan, McCann asked Badenoch if this was about protecting the whole of the UK, or just protecting critical infrastructure.
Badenoch replied:
I think you are splitting hairs here.
Critical national infrastructure protects the entire country. If we lose even one thing, the entire country is in, is in a real problem.
I don’t want to have a semantic argument. I have put out a description of something which should protect our country and which should make us safer.
Asked if she will propose tax cuts in her speech tomorrow, Badenoch tells McCann that she will have to wait until her speech tomorrow at 11.15am.
(This is getting confusing. On BBC Breakdfast, Badenoch told Jon Kay the speech was at 12pm.)
Badenoch claims ‘we haven’t called it Iron Dome’ – despite Tories using phrase in their press release
Q: You say your Iron Dome will protect the whole of the UK, and bases abroad. But Sir Richard Barrons, the former general, has said that a proper air defence like this would cost up to £100bn.
Badenoch says Barrons is referring to an Israel-style Iron Dome.
She says she is referring to something different. She says the UK should be able to defend itself from, for example, someone on a boat firing a drone at the system.
Q: But it is nothing like Israel’s Iron Dome. It is a gimmick, isn’t it?
Badenoch replied:
It’s not going to be exactly like the Iron Dome. We haven’t called it an Iron Dome.
But, in fact, they did. This is what they sent out to journalists yesterday.
Badenoch is on Times Radio now. She is being interviewed by Kate McCann.
Asked when she would raise defence spending to 3.5% of GDP, Badenoch says she has a plan to get to 3%. But she is not in government.
Q: But you say there might be an election soon?
Badenoch says the 3.5% is a Nato target.
She says she is not in government, and she implies it is unreasonable for McCann to expect her to set out a path to 3.5% when she is not in government.
Badenoch says Penny Mordaunt was ‘fantastic MP’ – but rules out special treatment for ex-MPs in candidate selection
Q: Would you like to see Penny Mordaunt selected as a Tory candidate?
(At the weekend Mordaunt, the former cabinet minister who lost her seat at the election, revealed she has been approved for the candidates list, which means she can apply to be a candidate in a Tory seat.)
Badenoch says it is not up to her to decide; local parties choose their candidates, she says.
She says she wants “serious people” committed to public service as MPs.
Q: Do you want to see her selected?
Badenoch says Mordaunt was a “fantastic MP”. She says she was sorry she lost her seat, and is glad she wants to stand again.
But former MPs won’t get special treatment when candidates are being selected, she says. She says she wants candidate selection to be a “meritocracy”.
Badenoch won’t say whether speech tomorrow will include plan to cut inheritance tax
Q: You are going to cut inheritance tax, aren’t you?
Badenoch says everyone knows she would like to do that. She has said that before.
But she won’t announce that unless she has found the money to pay for it.
Q: Will you have found the money by the time you give your speech tomorrow?
Badenoch tells Kay he will have to wait.
Badenoch does not accept claims £10bn not enough to fund missile defence
Jon Kay is interviewing Badenoch.
He puts it to her that the UK would need a very different missile defence system from Israel. Israel is under threat from short-range missiles, he says.
Badenoch says it is not just missiles that threaten the UK; drones are a threat too.
Q: Would £10bn be enough to pay for it?
Badenoch says it can be done. The £10bn would be spent over 10 years, she says. She says the UK needs to be protected.
Badenoch pays tribute to Jeffrey Archer, saying he sent her supportive text hours before he died
Kemi Badenoch is on BBC Breakfast.
They start by asking about the death of Jeffrey Archer, and Badenoch says she got a message from him only yesterday morning. He said: “Great outfit, great speech, no need to reply.”
Badenoch says Archer was “a great communicator” and a “great storyteller”, and someone who believed in Conservatism.
Here is our story about his death.
Lib Dems say Tories would only be able to get ‘Patchwork Dome’ for £10bn
The Liberal Democrats have dismissed the Tory plan for a “Britannia Shield” as “Truss-style fantasy economics”. They say the Conservatives would only get a “Patchwork Dome” with the £10bn they plan to spend on the project.
James MacCleary, the Lib Dem defence spokesperson, said:
Once again the Conservatives are indulging in Truss-style fantasy economics. £10bn would not even touch the sides for a complete UK-wide ‘Iron Dome’. They either need to review their dodgy sums or come clean about which parts of the country their Patchwork Dome wouldn’t cover.
Let’s not forget this is the party that hollowed out our armed forces for a decade, and whose disgraceful plan to fill the defence-spending black hole is based on targeted cuts to the poorest and most vulnerable children. You do not make Britain safer by pushing families into poverty.
What Tories are saying about how their proposed ‘Britannia Shield’ would work
This is what the Conservatives are saying about why the UK needs a “Britannia Shield” (their name for what they describe as a version of the “Iron Dome”), and who it would work.
The announcement comes as the threat of missile and drone attack against Britain and our allies continues to grow. Russia bombards Ukraine daily with ever more advanced drones and missiles, and they were behind a drone attack on Leipzig airport in August. Drones launched by Iranian proxies have hit our RAF base in Cyprus, and when Iran fired missiles at the Chagos islands earlier this year, it was the US who stepped in to launch interceptors. Nato allies, especially in the Baltic States, are suffering ever greater numbers of drone incursions and western intelligence agencies have warned that Russia could attack a Nato country by 2030.
We live in an increasingly dangerous and unpredictable world, where threats to the UK and our allies are growing in scale and complexity, yet Britain remains dangerously exposed. A report in November 2025 by the defence select committee warned that, compared to European allies investing heavily in integrated air and missile defence, the UK has “next to nothing”.
The Conservatives will close this dangerous capability gap by committing up to £10 billion over ten years. We will deliver a minimal deployable capability within our first term in office, with the remaining investment focused on expanding and strengthening the system over time.
Britannia Shield will have three key components:
SENSE: New advanced radar systems, to detect incoming missiles and drones.
DECIDE: Upgraded command and control systems to integrate information from across Britain’s defences and rapidly identify the most effective response.
EFFECT: New interceptor missiles, counter-drone capabilities, and significantly larger missile stockpiles to defeat incoming threats.
Politics Badenoch calls for UK ‘Iron Dome’ missile defence system
Good morning. Kemi Badenoch is doing a round of interviews this morning at the Conservative conference, and she will be talking about her plans for the UK to have its own version of Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile defence system. That phrase is not just journalists’ hype; it has come from the first line of the party’s press release, which says the party has plans for a “new integrated air and missile defence system to protect Britain from attack – in essence, a British ‘Iron Dome’.”
Here is our story by Jessica Elgot and Dan Sabbagh.
And this is what Badenoch is saying about it.
The first duty of government is to defend the country and keep people safe. Labour are failing that basic test.
The world will not wait for Britain to get ready. War has returned to Europe. Missiles and drones are transforming warfare in the Middle East. Cheap weapons can now threaten cities, military bases and critical infrastructure in ways that would have sounded like science fiction a generation ago.
If a missile or drone is launched at Britain, we do not get a second chance to wish we had prepared.
The Tories say their plan would cost £1bn a year over 10 years, and that the money would come from the plan they announced last month to raise defence spending by £10bn a year. Almost half the money for this would come from cuts to housing benefit.
Here is the agenda for the day.
7.30am: Kemi Badenoch begins a round of media interviews, starting with BBC Breakfast.
9.45am: The morning session of the Conservative party conference opens, with speeches from Katie Lam, the shadow housing secretary, then Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary (at 10.30am) and Rebecca Paul, the shadow culture secretary (at noon).
2pm: The afternoon session starts, with speeches from Alex Burghart, the deputy leader, Tom Tugendhat, the shadow foreign secretary, James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, and Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary.
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