Britain risks becoming a “country of people on benefits, living in social housing” if the dream of a property-owning democracy dies on Labour’s watch, according to Kemi Badenoch. The Conservative leader does not believe Labour will hit its target of building 1.5million new homes before the next election and warns that a UK where people cannot own a home of their own is a “nation in decline”.

The 45-year-old is spoiling for fights with Labour on a host of issues in 2026 and will put the party’s pledge to scrap stamp duty at the heart of her message to voters in May’s local elections.

Describing how she wants the Tories to be the party of “hope”, she says: “Conservatives don’t accept decline. We reverse decline.”

Rescuing home ownership is key to Britain’s future, she argues, saying: “I want to see our country go from strength to strength. We are a beacon of shining light in the world and we must continue to be so.

“That means having policies which will grow the economy and help people get on the housing ladder. That’s why I want to see us abolish stamp duty.

“Stamp duty is a terrible tax… Get rid of it.”

The Tory leader will open up a further dividing line with Labour by hiking pressure on the Government to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights.

She has “no confidence” that Labour will secure reforms to the Convention and insists pulling out is vital to tackle illegal immigration.

“There’s one thing we need to do to control our borders and that is leave the ECHR,” she says. “I didn’t rush to that conclusion. I made sure I did my homework, looked through all of the issues.

“We went through the legal papers. As long as we’re in the ECHR, we’re going to find it very difficult if not impossible to properly control our borders. Labour don’t want to leave the ECHR; Conservatives do.”

She answers quickly when asked her top mission for 2026, saying: “Winning the trust of the public back again. The Conservative party lost trust last year.

“Next year we want to win that back, show people we are in it for the right reasons – public service and to just get Britain working again.”

When asked about her personal resolutions for 2026 she is equally swift: “My New Year’s Resolution is to eat more healthily. I’ve eaten very badly this year – lots of junk.”

She predicts Labour will be a “one-term” Government but there is no guarantee voters will swing back to the Conservatives. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has topped the polls for months.

Mrs Badenoch has a simple pitch to young people with conservative convictions who are wondering whether to throw in their lot with the Tories or Reform UK, claiming hers is the true “party of the Right”.

“What I would say to them is that hype comes and hype goes,” she says. “The reason why the Conservative party has been around for 200-plus years is because we are the real deal and we do this because we are people who believe in doing the right thing; who want to maintain our country’s values; who want to maintain standards and principles; who want public service. If you want to change your country, join the Conservative party.

“If you want to a make a lot of noise, there are many other parties you can go to but as we’ve seen with Labour you won’t get to deliver any change.”

Mrs Badenoch says there are already signs of Tory revival.

“People are listening to us now,” she insists. “They weren’t listening to us after last year’s defeat.

“We’d just been in office 14 years; many people voted for change and they don’t like what they’ve got. They’ve got change for the worse so they are looking again at Conservatives.”

In the months ahead she plans to make common cause with Labour MPs who want to derail Justice Secretary David Lammy’s plans to curtail jury trials.

“We think we’ve found enough Labour rebels,” she says. “The right to jury trials is an ancient right…

“It’s not something which David Lammy should be scrapping just to deal with a minor administrative problem.”

Mrs Badenoch does not hide her loathing of Labour and sees party politics at play in changes to funding arrangements so more cash is expected to go to urban and deprived councils.

“They are taking away money from councils in rural areas which tend to vote Conservative and they are giving to the cities,” she claims. “They have changed the formula so they can give it to Labour-voting areas and that’s terrible.”

Sir Keir Starmer’s party, she says, is “very bad for the countryside”. She has campaigned to scrap taxes on family farms and businesses, she adds, because “we need to make sure we give people some hope”.

This is where she sees a gap in a crowded political marketplace.

“I want people to see the Conservative party as the party that is providing hope,” she says. “We are the only ones doing real Opposition to Labour.

“No other party is opposing them… We are the ones who are holding them to account and getting them to u-turn.”

She dismisses suggestions Labour’s woes could be turned around by the arrival of, for example, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham as leader.

“They are all turkeys,” she says of Sir Keir’s potential successors.

Recent Ipsos polling found 32% of people were likely to consider voting Conservative at the next general election. This was less than for Reform (36%) but more than for the Liberal Democrats (29%) or the Greens or Labour (both 26%). In November last year, when people were asked whether they would prefer Sir Keir or Mrs Badenoch as PM, the Labour leader had an 11 point lead; this month she was one point ahead.

Her recent performances in the House of Commons have been freewheeling and ferocious.

“I’ve always enjoyed it but I don’t think it showed until more recently,” she says. “I was trying lots of different things at Prime Minister’s Questions and I started off trying to actually get answers – now I don’t expect him to answer questions any more.”

Her ambitions go far beyond scoring points against a struggling Labour party. She wants to lead her party back onto the Government benches.

“I’m working to make sure that Conservatives can be on the Government side again, not just on the Opposition side,” she says. “We can do good things when we’re in Government again.”