Badenoch Reveals Conservative Party Was Nearly Broke

Badenoch said she inherited a party grappling with internal problems, with donors considering withdrawing funding after losing 250 seats in last year's general election, the worst result in the Conservative Party's history.

To mark her first year as Conservative Party leader, Badenoch said she spent her first months "working furiously behind the scenes", leading to some thinking her team "were not doing anything".

But Badenoch defended her position arguing: "Without money, a party can't survive."

Asked if there was risk that the Conservatives could have gone bankrupt, Badenoch said: "Yes, there was."

Badenoch would not say how near the party came to going running out of money, but admitted there was a moment when donors could have walked away.

 She said keeping donors on board "actually took quite a lot of quite a lot of my time" which she wished she had spent "out there a bit more".

Badenoch insists the party is now on a firmer footing and has begun to set out a new policy agenda, thanks to the groundwork she laid in the first few months.

That work culminated in a policy announcement blitz during her party conference speech in October, where she outlined plans to end stamp duty and pull Britain out of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).