Kemi Badenoch opens up about her personal faith
Speaking to the Conservative Christian Fellowship at the annual Wilberforce Address on Monday 17 November, Mrs Badenoch opened up about her own personal faith, saying that “Christian values have been a constant in my life”.
Speech delivered by the Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP at the annual Wilberforce Address hosted by the Conservative Christian Fellowship on Monday 17 November 2025
Opening: thanks
Thank you, David.
And thank you to the Conservative Christian Fellowship for everything you do.
Not only for organising tonight’s event, but for the volunteering you do to support our party across the country.
I’m also fortunate to have a CCF luminary by my side to support me in the work I do.
John Glen is your Patron and my Parliamentary Private Secretary.
I am grateful for the invitation to speak in honour of William Wilberforce.
He proved that conviction, courage and perseverance can change history.
A master of oratory, a prolific campaigner and a man of moral clarity, Wilberforce was not only a model parliamentarian, but one of our country’s great statesmen.
I am proud to follow in the footsteps of Conservative leaders who have given this address in his name: William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and David Cameron.
The question I want to answer
I want to reflect tonight on one question: what is the influence of Christianity in Conservative thinking?
Personal connection
For me, this is not an abstract subject.
It is personal.
I was raised in Nigeria by Methodist parents for whom faith meant duty, responsibility and stewardship.
Those are Christian values which have shaped my Conservatism.
Those values are deeply rooted in my family.
My paternal grandmother was a Muslim who chose to become a Christian.
My maternal grandfather was a Methodist minister.
Through the Conservative Party, I married a Catholic.
My children are raised in that faith.
Every day, I see this religious tradition expressed in how we live our lives.
Service, sacrifice and duty lie at the heart of our family life.
From Lagos to London, Christian values have been a constant in my life.
Britain’s Christian foundations
And they form the foundation of Britain.
They are woven through our institutions, our language, our law — liberty under the law, personal responsibility, and the moral courage to do what is right, even when it is unfashionable.
Not only has Christianity inspired our island story, it has also shaped the Conservative tradition.
Three Christian ideas at our core
My party is the fortunate custodian of a practical philosophy, shaped by three Christian ideas that have stood the test of time:
1) Stewardship — that what we inherit we hold in trust for those who come after us, for our children and grandchildren.
2) The dignity of work and responsibility — that effort should lead to reward, and that rights come with duties.
3) Compassion through community — that care is best rooted in family, faith and the local ties that bind us, with the state as safety net, not first resort.
Stewardship: living within our means
First, stewardship.
In scripture we see the virtue of living within our means.
In the second book of Kings, Elisha tells a widow:
“Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”
The message is simple and profound: clear the liabilities, live on what remains.
That moral clarity matters in public life, as much as in private life.
Debt is not just an accounting entry.
It is a burden placed on the shoulders of our children.
Conservatives believe government should model the same prudence we expect of households.
We cannot keep promising more than we can pay for.
It is not kindness to run up bills our grandchildren will struggle to meet.
Stewardship is about respect.
Respect for taxpayers who already give enough.
Respect for small businesses that cannot pass losses onto someone else.
Respect for the next generation who deserve an inheritance of opportunity, not an invoice for our indulgence.
So yes, there is a very strong Christian case for fiscal responsibility.
It is not cruelty.
It is care in its truest form.
And when we save, when we cut waste, when we focus the state on essentials, we do it to strengthen the foundations: a sound economy, financial stability and the capacity to invest where it truly matters.
As Margaret Thatcher put it:
“No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions — he had money as well.”
Prudence is what makes compassion possible.
But there is also a warning.
When the state grows faster than the economy, it smothers enterprise and squeezes out initiative.
Since the final quarter of 2019 real GDP has grown by 5.3%.
Meanwhile, day to day government spending has grown by 13.7%.
Economists call this “crowding out”.
When excessive spending and borrowing pushes up interest rates and displaces private sector activity.
A bigger state means smaller opportunity.
Under my leadership, Conservatives choose a state that does less but does it well.
So families, firms and communities can do more.
Responsibility and the dignity of work
Second, responsibility and the dignity of work.
In the parable of the talents, a master rewards servants who wisely use and grow what they are given and condemns the one who hides his gift out of fear.
It is a reminder that success is a product of work and risk-taking.
St Paul, we read, in the first Epistle to Timothy proclaims that
“Anyone who does not provide for his own household… is worse than an unbeliever”.
It may surprise some of you to hear me quote this passage.
I do so to recognise the enduring wisdom of biblical teaching.
The Christian recognition that we all have duties…
To ourselves, to our families and to the community we are part of.
Conservatives believe in making work pay, in rewarding risk, in ensuring effort matches reward.
We also believe a welfare system should be a trampoline, not a trap — cushioning the fall, then propelling you back on your feet.
That is not only economically sensible…
It is morally right.
Helping people into work, backing apprenticeships, cutting the taxes that punish jobs and enterprise…
These are ways of affirming human dignity, not denying it.
When Jesus tells his followers:
“The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few…”
It is a call to mobilise, to step forward, to serve.
Britain has talent and potential in every town.
Our task is to remove the barriers that keep people idle when there is work to be done.
High energy costs that shut factories…
Skills mismatches that keep young people out of good jobs…
Perverse incentives that make welfare pay more than wages.
We will get Britain working again because work is good for the soul, as well as the economy.
Compassion through community
Third, compassion through community.
The Christian story teaches that love of neighbour is lived close to home:
in families who care…
in churches that organise….
in volunteers who give up their time without asking for reward.
The state matters.
No decent society abandons those with severe needs.
But a healthy society equips people to care for themselves.
If 1 in 4 now self-report as disabled, we must be honest…
Welfare must be reformed so help reaches those with serious conditions, while we support others to recover, and return to work.
This is not about stigmatising anyone.
It is about fairness.
So the vulnerable are not failed by a system that has lost its way.
And it is about empowering the people and institutions that know individuals best:
Families…
Local charities…
Faith groups…
Employers willing to offer a hand up, not a government giving a handout.
This is where Wilberforce inspires us.
He did not wait for fashionable opinion to give him permission to fight against the slave trade.
He built alliances across civil society.
He deployed secular, as well as religious arguments.
He understood that moral renewal and practical reform go together — faith rousing action, action vindicating faith.
His campaign against the slave trade combined compassion and courage: patient, persistent, practical, rooted in truth.
Today, we need that same spirit.
Not grandstanding.
Not performative politics.
The work of rebuilding.
Serious, detailed work, with a plan to make our country stronger.
What does this mean in practice?
Living within our means.
Under our Golden Economic Rule, at least half of the £47 billion of savings we have identified from government spending will go toward reducing the debt burden for our children and grandchildren.
The rest of those savings will fund priorities that help people stand on their own two feet: cheaper energy, lower taxes and the skills that turn potential into prosperity.
Making work pay.
We will reform welfare so that those who can work, do work, and those who cannot are cared for.
We will double the apprenticeships budget.
We will back small businesses by abolishing business rates for pubs, cafes, shops.
Reward will match effort again.
Strengthening families and local institutions.
We will make it easier to save for a rainy day.
We have a plan to save the average family £165 a year on electricity bills.
And we will introduce a First Job Bonus…
A £5,000 tax cut for young people entering work for the first time to go into a savings account.
We will make it easier to own a home, by scrapping Stamp Duty on main homes.
Families who do the right thing will be able to put down roots in a community and build a stake in society.
And we will make it easier for employers — including charities, social enterprises and local businesses — to serve the vulnerable without drowning in red tape
By overturning the Government’s Employment Rights Bill.
A safety net with integrity.
We will ensure the state prioritises severe need, with assessments rooted in proper evidence.
Compassion is not measured by how much we spend.
It is measured by how well we help those who really need it.
I believe family is the first and best source of welfare.
Government should respect that, not replace it.
Timeless virtues
Some will say this sounds old-fashioned.
I say it is time-tested.
Stewardship, work, family, responsibility — these are not relics.
They are the rails on which a good society runs.
They free us from drift and decline.
They call us to excel in all we do.
And they rescue politics from the pretence that every problem can be solved by writing another cheque.
I know something about the power of these values because I have lived them.
My first jobs were on the high street.
I did an apprenticeship before I did degrees.
I learnt that standing on your own two feet builds confidence nothing else can match.
I also learnt that you cannot do it alone.
You need people who care — parents, mentors, employers — and you need a system that rewards effort, not excuses it.
What this means for Britain
The influence of Christianity in Conservative thinking is not about imposing belief.
It is about recognising that Britain flourished most when it took seriously the virtues Christianity helped embed:
Duty before entitlement.
Truth over convenience.
Love of neighbour, expressed in the service of others.
Mercy with justice.
Freedom guarded by order.
These ideas are never easy to live up to.
We have fallen short at times.
But if we are honest about what went wrong, and brave about what must change, we can rebuild trust.
We can show that fiscal responsibility is respect.
That welfare reform is human dignity.
That strengthening families and communities is the surest path to compassion that lasts.
This is the core of what I want you to leave here with tonight, the Conservative plan for renewal:
• A stronger economy because we live within our means.
• A fairer society because we make work pay and match support to genuine need.
• A more hopeful country because families, churches and volunteers are trusted to do what they do best.
Conclusion
Wilberforce did not chase applause.
He pursued truth.
That is our task, too.
To tell the truth, take the tough decisions, and put our country back on the right path.
The harvest is plentiful in Britain. The labourers must no longer be few.
Let us be good stewards of what we have inherited.
Let us honour our duties.
And let us build a nation where our children inherit opportunities, not liabilities.
A Britain shaped not by what is fashionable, but by what is right....
And made stronger for it.
Thank you.