Badenoch says Tories would ban doctor strikes and shut down ‘rip-off courses’published at 12:01 BST

12:01 BST

Badenoch says police are spending 800,000 hours every year waiting with mental health patients.

“No more,” she puts plainly.

She vows that the Tories will put officers back on the streets – free from “pointless paperwork” – to go after people who will face a “triple stop and search”.

On NHS waiting lists, Badenoch says: “Enough is enough. We will ban doctors from going on strike.”

She accuses Labour of bending over to the teaching unions, promising the Tories would “will reverse this act of educational vandalism”.

“Education should be how people change their lives… it should ensure you get the job you want,” she says.

Onto university, she says graduates leave with “crippling loans and no real prospects.”

She pledges that the Tories will shut down rip-off courses and use the money to double the apprenticeship budget.

It’s “wasted money, wasted talent,” she says, criticising the “low-quality courses” that do not lead to “real jobs”.

This is personal for Badenoch, she notes, having completed two degrees and an apprenticeship.

“I was working with adults. I was paying my own way,” she recalls.

“It gave an eighteen-year-old me a self confidence that my university degrees never did. And unlike my degrees, I wasn’t left with any debt.”