Ewan Murrie
Political reporter

In his series of interviews with BBC local radio stations, the Conservative deputy leader repeatedly returned to the same message: Kemi Badenoch is a "dynamic" and "impressive" leader.

His emphasis on Badenoch reflects the improvement in her personal approval ratings over the past year, even as the Conservatives continue to regularly poll in third place.

Burghart argued that the party’s fortunes would improve as more voters got to know Badenoch, while playing down the challenge posed by Andy Burnham’s emergence as a more popular prime minister.

He repeatedly accused Burnham of lacking a vision for growing the UK economy, which he argued was essential to improving living standards.

He dismissed Reform UK as "good campaigners" without a "plan" to fix the country's problems.

But when pressed on why the Conservatives had failed to tackle those issues while in government, his answer largely centred on the party now being under new management.

On local issues, the deputy leader seemed largely well briefed - answering questions on the Birmingham bin strikes and the finances of Somerset council.

We’re now ending our live coverage.

How many extra prison places did the Conservatives create?published at 13:23 BST

13:23 BST

By Tom Edgington

Speaking to BBC Radio Cornwall, Alex Burghart said the Conservatives "started the biggest prison building plan since Victorian times".

Ministry of Justice figures show that 13,000 prison places were built in England and Wales between 2010 and 2024, external when the Conservatives were in government.

However, 12,500 places were closed during the same period. , externalThat means that only 500 extra places were created overall - about 36 a year under the Conservatives.

Joshua Nevett
Political reporter

For a moment, listeners of BBC Radio Newcastle may have thought they were tuning into a history podcast.

Alex Burghart was asked whether his party had reckoned with the impact of former Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s policies on north-east England.

The Conservative deputy leader said that, as a former history teacher, he didn’t agree with that framing.

"It was in the 70s when the country was effectively rendered bankrupt by the disastrous decisions that the Labour government made," he said.

"It's actually very similar to the decisions that this government is making," he added.

There was even a mention of Denis Healey, the former Labour chancellor who famously applied for an emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund in 1976 after a run on the pound.

"The post-war settlement broke down when Denis Healey had to go to the IMF," he said.

A niche point, perhaps.

But Burghart made it to draw a line between the Labour government of the 1970s and the Labour government of the present day and, in so doing, defended Thatcher, a former PM who is held in very high esteem in Conservative circles.

Matthew Cole
Political correspondent

One of the key challenges facing the Conservative Party was rather neatly highlighted in one of Alex Burghart's answers on BBC Hereford & Worcester.

He said: "We've got these two major politicians promising everyone everything... with no way to pay for it."

He means Andy Burnham and Nigel Farage, but what it shows is that the Tories are having to fight battles in two directions - with Labour to their left and Reform UK to their right.

Any military expert will tell you that a battle on two fronts is very much not what you want - but that's what the Conservatives are facing.

Burghart says the solution is that his boss Kemi Badenoch "tells it how it is".

But with Andy Burnham saying he is the one being "honest" about the current state of things and Nigel Farage pitching himself in similar terms - how will voters know who to listen to?

Elliot Ball
BBC West Midlands

Conservative deputy leader Alex Burghart has ruled out ever forming a coalition with Reform UK, stating it is a "firm party policy" not to do so.

It comes after his party suspended the Worcestershire group leader for striking a deal with the Green Party and others to oust the county council's minority Reform UK administration.

Burghart is asked by BBC Hereford & Worcester why his party would not work collaboratively with other parties, to which he says: "We will work with other parties if they want to deliver Conservative policies."

He is then asked if that means Reform UK could be an ally to the Conservatives.

"No, we're not going to form a coalition with Reform," Burghart says, adding: "That is a very, very firm party policy. We don't want to work with Reform."

Tom MacDougall
BBC North East and Cumbria

Alex Burghart tells BBC Radio Newcastle's Anna Foster the Conservatives would make it harder for young people to claim benefits and easier to get into work.

The North East has one of the highest levels of young people not in employment, education, or training (Neets).

He says young people would be given reduced payments if they cannot find work after six months, and "will no longer be able to sign on the day you turn 18".

"Some young people, not all, but some sign on very early in life and form very bad habits they find it really difficult to get out of," he says.

The former history teacher adds that Margaret Thatcher's Britain in the 1980s, commonly blamed for a large loss of employment in the region, was a by-product of "disastrous" public debt racked up by Labour in the 1970s.

Alex Burghart, deputy leader of the Conservative Party, has just wrapped a series of live interviews with BBC radio stations.

We'll continue to bring you the key things he said.

Tory deputy leader Alex Burghart tells BBC Cornwall's Julie Skentelbery the country's planning system makes building "incredibly slow".

"Obviously, it's about getting spades in the ground," he says. "But also making sure that we're getting the houses in the places people want to live and that we're not eating up too much of our special countryside, of which we have so much in Cornwall."

"You can't do that without shaking up the planning system, because at the moment it's too slow to build and it's too expensive to build," he adds.

Burghart is also asked about early prison release. For context, hundreds of prisoners across England and Wales are being released early today under a new scheme designed to free up prison space.

Burghart says it is "absolutely shocking" to discover Dartmoor prison was closed due to radon gas.

• You can read more about the 2024 prison closure here

"It's exactly the same radon that everyone living in the area is exposed to all of the time," he says. "That's about 700 places you could free up in one go."

"You have to build prisons and... if you get the planning system right you can actually do that much faster," he adds.

BBC Radio Kent

Conservative deputy leader Alex Burghart has told BBC Radio Kent he does not believe the current regulatory set-up in the country is working to hold water companies to account.

"I don’t think that the current regulatory environment is working actually and I think that we absolutely do have to shake that up," he says.

He adds: "I don’t regret the privatisation [of water companies] because obviously there are some water companies that are doing a good job and obviously before water privatisation there were state-run services that often did a very bad job, so I don’t think it's as simple as that."

Burghart says he does not think the service customers in Kent have been getting is good enough, as the county previously faced a string of supply issues.

"Simply moving things into public ownership doesn't actually fix the problem at all, it just moves it to another area," he says.

Matthew Cole
Political correspondent

"Why should people trust you now to solve problems that developed during your 14 years in office?"

That's the question put to Alex Burghart on BBC Radio Kent - but one which the Conservatives will have been wrangling with ever since they were booted out of office in 2024.

The Tories' new deputy leader acknowledged his party had got "some things wrong" - but then began talking more positively about the future.

He said his boss, Kemi Badenoch, was "impressive and dynamic" and promised an "exciting and dynamic" future under her leadership if his party was returned to power.

The polls suggest that might not happen any time soon - but Alex Burghart has been doing his best to exude positivity about the Conservatives' chances of turning things round.

Opposition is tough - but the Tory deputy leader was clearly at least trying to find reasons to be cheerful.

Clara Bullock
Live page reporter

Alex Burghart went to Millfield School in Somerset and says the county is "very important" to him.

"It's one of the parts of the country Conservatives want to win back," he tells BBC Radio Somerset's Simon Parkin.

"I'm very hopeful that we're going to be able to make that case and show people in Somerset that we can do the right things for the countryside, that we can do the right things for small businesses and turn the country around."

Burghart adds that he believes "sorting out the national finances" will help councils in Somerset.

"We are spending way too much money and borrowing way too much," he says.

"You've got to have a positive vision for the country. The inheritance tax on family farms I think was a total disaster," he adds.

Conservative deputy leader Alex Burghart has just been questioned on what his party would do to help resolve Birmingham's long-running bin dispute.

This weekend, the Conservatives will host their autumn conference in the city.

Birmingham's bin strike remains one of the biggest issues facing the city. The dispute has left residents facing repeated disruption and put pressure on the council's coalition administration.

Asked what the Conservatives would do to help bring the dispute to an end, Burghart says: "It goes back to a pay dispute around this crazy idea that everybody has to be paid the same, regardless of what job they’re doing".

Speaking to BBC Radio WM, he added: "We will scrap that, we will get rid of that, and we will make sure that we can resolve the dispute that way, by making sure that people get the money they deserve for the job that they’re doing."

Burghart was also asked about Birmingham City Council's bid for an injunction against people accused of putting up unauthorised flags on lampposts across the city.

He says: “Getting fighty with people who want to fly the flag of their own country is a bit much.”

Asked whether seeking legal action is the right approach, Burghart describes it as "heavy handed".

"I just think that your national flag ought to be a sign of cohesion… We’re all citizens of this country, we’re all members of this team," he says.

Image source, Getty Images

The BBC local radio interviews with Alex Burghart have just begun.

BBC Radio WM presenter Ed James is the first to question the Conservative Party deputy leader.

You can watch live at the top of the page - we'll also bring you the key lines here.

Ewan Murrie
Political reporter

Before entering politics, Alex Burghart spent much of his career studying history.

He recently wrote about the arrival of the 1,000-year-old Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum, describing its survival, despite all it has endured, as "arrestingly freakish".

After the Conservatives' worst general election defeat on record in 2024, he will no doubt hope his party can prove similarly durable, despite election setbacks in 2025 and 2026.

A close ally of party leader Kemi Badenoch, Burghart has served as the MP for Brentwood and Ongar since June 2017. He was appointed Conservative deputy leader in August, in a reshuffle aimed at laying the foundations for the party’s future.

Not widely known yet to the general public, he is regarded within Conservative circles as a strong Commons performer and has deputised for the leader at Prime Minister's Questions.

Ewan Murrie
Political reporter

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

After a difficult few years, the Conservatives are beginning to feel somewhat less beleaguered.

In June, they secured their first Scottish by-election victory since 1973, with their firm support for expanding North Sea oil and gas extraction among the issues they put at the centre of their campaign.

More broadly, the Conservatives are hoping that Andy Burnham’s arrival in Downing Street will give them clearer dividing lines with Labour, particularly over taxation and public spending.

A major reshuffle over the summer saw party leader Kemi Badenoch begin to signal her vision ahead of the next general election, with a focus on fiscal discipline, economic growth and raising living standards.

But the party’s prospects remain closely tied to the fortunes of Reform UK, which continues to divide the right of British politics and compete for Conservative voters.

Tory deputy leader Alex Burghart will participate in a round of interviews with BBC local radio presenters shortly as part of this year's party conference season.

We've given a similar opportunity to figures from across the main Westminster parties. The Conservative deputy leader is in the hot seat last ahead of the party's annual gathering in Birmingham, taking place from Sunday.

First up to quiz the deputy leader is Ed James on BBC Radio WM from 12:08 BST, with Simon Parkin up next on BBC Radio Somerset and Mike Ziolek on BBC Radio Kent.

They will be followed by Julie Skentelbery on BBC Radio Cornwall and Anna Foster on BBC Radio Newcastle.

Rounding out the hour will be Elliott Webb with the final questions for Burghart on BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester.

You'll be able to watch live at the top of the page - we'll also bring you the key lines here.