Ms Badenoch was scathing about the Online Harms Bill, which aimed to protect internet users, and children in particular, from sexual abuse, terrorists and other online harm.
“It’s something I’m really glad I can talk about now because I’m not a minister so there’s no more collective responsibility,” she said.
“We had an Online Harms Bill that was supposed to look at very serious crime, online terrorism, child pornography and deal with that, and now it’s grown. It tries to fix many other problems it wasn’t originally intended to fix. Legislation is not always the answer.”
Ms Badenoch added: “We are now at a point where we are legislating for hurt feelings. I think there will be significant problems with freedom of speech.
Risk of criminalizing “statements of fact”
Ms Badenoch, who has been vilified by pro-trans campaigners for her opposition to gender-neutral toilets, warned the government was at risk of criminalizing “factual claims” about biology and sex.
“One of the things that I see is that people saying that women are adult biological women is hurtful speech. We cannot legislate something that will create a crime out of such a simple, factual statement. And those are the things I think we’re doing wrong.
“If I were prime minister, I would really cut this bill short to focus on what it was supposed to do. And that’s what I mean by gentle management. Solve the problem.”
Ms Badenoch, whose work before politics included work as a secretary, maths teacher, shop assistant and software engineer, added that her “light management” philosophy stems from “the way I think about things”.
“I’m an engineer by education and that’s how I look at things. You analyze the root cause of a problem and try to fix it from there before going elsewhere.
“The Road to Hell Paved with Good Intentions”
How has the government managed to stray so far from the core Conservative values espoused by Mr Johnson during his leadership campaign and the 2019 election?
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” she said. “It always comes from trying to keep everyone happy. And I think that was one of the hardest things to deal with as you get bigger and bigger majorities. You’re building a broader coalition and it’s hard to keep everyone happy.
“We should be able to set an agenda, [not] ask everyone what they want and then try to please everyone. I think that’s kind of an example of what happens when you do that.
Mrs Badenoch fears Theresa May, the former prime minister, has anchored Britain’s overarching climate change target without a sufficient plan to actually reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2050.
“I think it was wrong of us to set a target without having a clear plan for spending and knowing what it would entail,” Ms Badenoch said. “Setting an arbitrary goal like this is the wrong way to go.
“I’m not someone who doesn’t believe in climate change. I can see. But there is a better way to deal with these things.”
Add Comment