In a speech on Monday, Ms Badenoch will say: “Freedom of speech is no longer something we can take for granted as a shared value.
“The reality is that attacks on free speech tend to hurt the people with the least power. They do not control the institutions, so they rely on their voice and the tools of persuasion and reason.
“I know from experience that talking about issues like race, ethnicity or LGBT rights can get you into hot water, but as an MP I’m safer than a lot of people who are genuinely afraid of losing their jobs.”
She would go on to say that more and more people are “awakening to the eternal truth that it is wrong and dangerous to restrict speech” and that it can lead to “bad outcomes for society and can marginalize groups themselves, for which we claim you want to protect”.
Ms Badenoch spent the past two-and-a-half years as Equalities Minister in the Upliftment Department before leaving the role on July 6.
Two days later, she announced her candidacy in a Times newspaper column in which she took aim at Blairite’s “cultural establishment” and identity politics, while promising to return the party to a low-tax trajectory.
In 2020, she gave an acclaimed speech about the “critical race theory” trend in schools, which was voted speech of the year by readers of the Conservative Home website.
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