Inheritance tax

Badenoch backs inheritance-tax cuts but insists on a funding plan

The Conservative leader says reducing the tax is morally justified, while withholding a promise until she can explain how it would be paid for.

4 OCT 2026 · 1 min read

Archive portrait of Kemi Badenoch published by DLUHC in March 2022, not a photograph of the October 2026 conference. — Archive · Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities / Crown copyright. Archive portrait published 31 March 2022; Open Government Licence v3.0; cropped for display. · Licence · Cropped for display. Context image, not a photograph of this event.

Kemi Badenoch has backed the principle of cutting inheritance tax, but said she would not announce a reduction without explaining how to fund it. Her comments put tax policy on the agenda as Conservatives gathered for their Birmingham conference on Sunday.

The condition attached

In an interview with The Sunday Times, reported by The Independent, the Conservative leader argued that people who work and want to pass wealth to their children should be able to do so without the government taking a share. She characterised the tax as double taxation.

Badenoch also emphasised fiscal responsibility. Her stated support for a reduction was conditional on its affordability: the interview did not amount to an unconditional commitment to abolish inheritance tax.

What remains unresolved

For families considering what they may leave to their children, the distinction matters. The comments signal the direction Badenoch would like tax policy to take, but they do not set out a funded package, an implementation date or a change to the rules currently in force.