Conservatives need to show they are “looking at people from all walks of life and from all ages”, Kemi Badenoch has said in a new pitch for young people’s votes.
Speaking at a high school in Evesham, Worcestershire, Mrs Badenoch warned that “no party can survive if it’s just tending to one demographic”, amid fears some younger voters see her party as one “for older people”.
She said the Conservatives are working on new policy programmes for housing and repeated her previous calls for a phone ban in school classrooms.
“I want to create just a better environment for children,” Mrs Badenoch told reporters.
“They’re young for such a short time in their lives that they should enjoy it to the fullest and not have all these harms coming in.”
Asked what she was planning to “make sure the Conservative Party doesn’t die out”, Mrs Badenoch replied: “We’ve got to make sure that we demonstrate that we are creating an inheritance for the next generation.
“I think a lot of young people thought the Conservative Party was a party for older people; no party can survive if it’s just tending to one demographic.
“We need to show that we’re looking at people from all walks of life and from all ages. That means talking about the issues that matter to them.”
The Conservative leader later added: “For those in their 20s and 30s, housing is a big issue. We’re working on new policy programmes for housing.
“You know, we want to see more homes built but built in the right places.
“But I was quite interested in the questions that the students up there asked me about – they were very concerned about free speech, they were talking about social media, and I think those are the things that are impacting their lives right now.
“They talked about bullying that happens online, how they were concerned about those things, and one of the policies that I’ve put forward is banning phones in schools, especially smartphones.
“That restricts the access to social media. A lot of teachers have said that the phones are very disruptive, especially at the GCSE age when they most need to focus on their exams.”
Turning to further education and training colleges, Mrs Badenoch said it “worries” her that “we’re losing the skills and the ability to make things and to do things with our hands”, while university students are saddled with “exorbitant” debts.
She said: “I was the first generation to pay fees. I only had £14,000 when I came out. I finished paying it aged 31.
“A lot of young people today are going to be carrying those debts for the rest of their lives and I think that that’s too big a burden.”
Turning to the local elections in England on May 1, including in Worcestershire, Mrs Badenoch said: “We can’t just sit back and assume that people will vote for us.
“We need to show that we’re fighting for every single vote, we want to rebuild our trust with the public.
“These elections will be challenging because the last time we fought them we won two-thirds of the seats, there was a (Covid-19) vaccine bounce, we were winning seats off Labour, like Hartlepool – it’s not going to be like that this time.
“But we want to remind people that Conservative councils really deliver the best services for the lowest taxes.”
