I'll take a chainsaw to the bloated State, vows Kemi Badenoch... just like Argentina's strongman president
The Conservative leader described Javier Milei as 'the template' as she praised his honesty with voters and ability to deliver results.
In his election campaign in 2023, Mr Milei gained fame for wielding a chainsaw as a symbol of the deep cuts he planned to make to Argentina's state spending.
He has since halved the number of government ministries, slashed the public sector workforce by 10 per cent and taken steps to overturn years of fiscal deficits.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Mrs Badenoch was asked whether Britain needed someone like Mr Milei and whether she was such a politician.
'Yes and yes,' she replied, adding: 'Milei is the template.'
The Argentinian president later retweeted her remarks, and said: 'Fenomeno Barrial', or 'neighbourhood phenomenon'.
Mrs Badenoch also used the interview to dismiss chatter about a challenge to her authority as Tory leader. She said: 'I can't spend all my time worrying about regicide.
I would lose my mind. I'm so thick-skinned to the point where I don't even notice if people are trying to create harm. That's extremely useful in this job.'
She said 'muscle memory plus trial and error' had helped her to grow in the role, but admitted of her party: 'The public are not yet ready to forgive.'
She added that she was being 'very, very relentless' in talking about the economy and was 'terrified' by levels of government debt, the sight of the state 'spreading its tentacles everywhere' and crowding out the wealth-creating economy.
The Opposition leader also warned voters against following Nigel Farage's Reform UK, saying her party cannot be a 'repository for disenchantment'. Instead, she said Conservatism had to be about 'offering hope, fixing problems'.
Her comments come after reports that many Tory MPs who backed Mrs Badenoch in the leadership contest have privately turned on her and believe her core team of advisers are 'lightweights and sycophants'.
Faltering Conservatives may seek to trigger a vote of confidence in their leader in November, once a grace period protecting her from such a move ends, the New Statesman suggested. Asked about the idea that Tory MPs were already plotting a coup, Mrs Badenoch said this week: 'I would say that if nobody put their name to it, then I'm not paying any attention to it.'
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