The Tories launched their local election campaign this morning, with a beaming Kemi Badenoch surrounded by rows of flag-waving party members. The polls remain stubbornly low for the party, but the Conservative leader gave little sign of that getting to her. In a 20-minute speech, she gave an upbeat, on-message performance which centred on her slogan of ‘strong economy, strong country’. It mixed her favoured turf on cultural issues along with a veritable smorgasbord of ‘red meat’ on fiscal policy: a stamp duty cut, a fuel duty cut and slashing business rates too. The figures might be a little iffy – can the Tories really cut £47 billion without touching the triple lock? – but it had the party faithful cheering.

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