Kemi Badenoch has claimed young Conservatives are marked down at university because of their personal politics.
Speaking at the end of the annual Tory conference, the leadership candidate told party delegates that the younger generation are “afraid to share their politics” out of fear their peers will attack them or lecturers will mark them down.
Badenoch told those gathered in Birmingham that “identity politics” was becoming a pressing issue.
She said: “Like the 1970s, we face a battle of ideas against the left and its desire for ever greater social and economic control. It is socialism returned, socialism in a suit.”
Claiming that Brits know “socialism doesn’t work,” she encouraged her party not to be afraid of their beliefs.
She continued: “This new politics has made us afraid, afraid to defend the people who need us, like young Conservatives, they tell me they are afraid to share their politics with other students, because they will be attacked, that they are marked down by lecturers because of their beliefs.
“We have let young Conservatives down. We need to defend them, champion them, and give them a party they can be proud of.”
That sparked a wave of applause from the audience.
Badenoch also attacked New Labour, saying: “Unlike the left, we know right from wrong, but we allowed ourselves to be bound by aggressive identity politics, by a Treasury whose rules were written by Gordon Brown, and a legal system re-engineered by Tony Blair.
“You may think Blair and Brown were defeated in 2010, but the truth is the left never left – it’s time to make a change.”
But she told the party faithful she is “not afraid to fight”, adding: “I don’t fight for the sake of fighting, but I do fight for you.
“Every day of the last parliament, I fought for Conservative values.
“I fought for them even when I was told it wasn’t in my interest – I fought for women’s rights to safe spaces and children’s rights to grow up in their own time.
“I fought against those who seek to divide our country based on race, I fought for the future of my three children and for your children.
“I will always fight against left-wing nonsense.”
The speech was her final pitch to delegates, who will ultimately decide who replaces Rishi Sunak.
It comes after a tumultuous few days for Badenoch, who caused a row at the start of the conference after saying maternity pay was “excessive”, only to issue a clarification a short while later.
She also claimed minimum wage is “over-burdening” business and claimed up to 10% of civil servants should be “in prison”.