UK politics live: Kemi Badenoch insists she believes in maternity pay as Tory rivals jump on ‘excessive’ claim
Badenoch suggests current maternity leave pay may be too generous at the Conservative Party conference
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Kemi Badenoch has sparked controversy after describing maternity pay as “excessive” and calling for greater personal responsibility.
In an interview with Times Radio, the Tory leadership hopeful argued that government intervention on issues like the maternity benefit had gone “too far”, placing a burden on businesses.
Ms Badenoch’s remarks have drawn fierce criticism, with union bosses and campaigners condemning them as “out of touch” and “another example of dog-whistle politics”.
Reacting to the comments, rival candidate Tom Tugendhat said he did not know the context of Ms Badenoch’s claims but that it is important for women to have the ability to choose, while Robert Jenrick said the party should be “firmly on the side of parents and working mums”.
It comes after the shadow secretary defended her claim that there has been a recent rise in the number of migrants coming to the UK who “hate Israel”.
She said in a newspaper op-ed on Sunday that migrants’ “feet may be in the UK, but their heads and hearts are still back in their country of origin.” But when she was asked on Sky News if she was referring to Muslim immigrants, Ms Badenoch disagreed.
The Independent’s political team will be reporting live throughout the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.
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Home Office is ‘in ashes’, Robert Jenrick says
Asked about his ministerial record, Robert Jenrick has claimed the Home Office was “in ashes” when he first entered.
He told the BBC: “I worked relentlessly on legal migration to secure the biggest change to that system in my lifetime.
“It will ensure that the number of people coming into our country legally goes down by around 300,000 and you can already see that flowing into the numbers.
“And on illegal migration, I was the only minister who reduced the number of people coming across on small boats and I got the number of deportations in this country up by 80 per cent in a year.”
Robert Jenrick hits out at mass migration
While some Tory leadership contenders were grilled on Sky News, Robert Jenrick has been interviewed on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
The former immigration minister said his party has “to listen to the public and set out serious answers” to challenges on the NHS and immigration.
He added: “I want to use this leadership contest for us to settle those things and to have a clear plan as to how we take our party and our country forward, and I have that in particular on immigration.”
Asked whether he would accept lower economic growth to cut immigration, he said: “I don’t agree that the age of mass migration has made our country richer. In the 25 years since Tony Blair became prime minister, we’ve had 5.9 million people coming into our country legally.
“It was 59,000 in the 25 years prior to that, and this has not been a period of record growth, record productivity for rate. In fact, far from it.”
In pictures: Conservative Party conference in Birmingham
Britain suffered from ‘absence of leadership’, says Tugendhat
Tom Tugendhat has criticised the “lack of leadership” in recent years, insisting that he would bring a decisive approach to governing.
Speaking to Sky News, he said: “The way I would deliver is by leading”.
Reminding members about his operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, he added: “I’ve been a soldier. I’ve helped to rebuild government in Afghanistan and served on the National Security Council.
“I’ve spent years serving the public in various different ways, including standing up against hate, against tyrants when I was chairing the foreign affairs committee, and as you know that got me sanctioned by China, by Russia and by Iran, a country that is now threatening us again.
“And I’ve been warning clearly for years that the alliance of tyrants and dictatorships that we’ve seen growing in recent years is a direct threat to the British people.”
Tory contender admits his party ‘failed to deliver'
Tom Tugendhat has attributed the Conservatives’ election defeat in July to a “failure to deliver”.
In his pitch, he called for a renewed focus on the party’s achievements rather than internal divisions.
He said: “Quite understandably, people have looked at us and asked us what our record is. The focus of the media has been where we’ve drawn attention, and we’ve drawn attention to the in-fighting and not our success.”
Mr Tugendhat added: “We need to restore trust and the way we restore trust is by ending the culture of sleaze that sadly we now see infecting the Labour Party, and to make sure that we’re bringing back the trust that British people can expect in their parties.
“Change is the way our party will act.”
Tugendhat: Iran is a pernicious and vicious threat
Tom Tugendhat has now taken the Sky News stage to make his case for the Tory leadership.
Like his contenders, he is asked about his message to Israel.
Mr Tugendhat replied: “Well, I’d be saying to Iran that this is no time for escalation, this is no time for reinforcing your militias in the region.”
The veteran added that “we don’t just have to be tough in words, we have to be tough in action” in dealing with Tehran, highlighting his introduction of the National Security Act.
He added: “We need to be absolutely clear, Iran is a pernicious and vicious threat, not just to the region but also us in the United Kingdom.”
Cleverly: I’ve been the face and voice of four different prime ministers
James Cleverly has hit back at criticism over his lower support among Tory MPs compared to rivals Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, highlighting his loyalty and experience.
He told Sky News: “I have been the face and voice of, as you say, four different prime ministers and I have been a team player, which means I have had to promote other people’s ideas.
“I was happy to do so, that’s what you do as part of a team. The point I’m saying is I have not spent that time promoting my own ideas. This leadership campaign is about doing that.
“And the point is you say I’m most popular with the general population, that really matters if you’re trying to win a general election.”
Cleverly admits voters wanted Tories out of office
James Cleverly is now asked about the bruising defeat to Labour at the general election.
Reflecting on the result, he told Sky: “British voters told us not that they wanted a Labour government, they wanted us out of office, and we have got to listen to that.”
He added: “There’s no point getting angry with the voters. We got kicked out of office for a reason. What we’ve now got to do is get our act together, quickly, listen to what they told us properly, and then campaign once again on our core values to get back into office.
“I’ll tell you what the public told me they didn’t like, they didn’t like the constant infighting, they didn’t like the bickering.
“They didn’t like the fact that as soon as someone became prime minister, there were people within the party who set about removing them as prime minister. And we didn’t do that just once or twice. We did that over and over again.”
‘Israel should act within international law,' Cleverly says
It is now the turn of shadow home secretary James Cleverly.
Sky News’ Trevor Phillips has asked the Tory contender what would he say to Israel following the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah.
Mr Cleverly responded: “I would see them what I said to them already when I was foreign secretary, when I met with President Herzog, when I met with Prime Minister Netanyahu, defence minister Gallant.
“I’ve said that you do have a right to defend yourself, absolutely. They are surrounded by people who would do them harm. But when they do so, they have to abide by international law.
“They have to be conscious of civilian casualties, they have to act professionally, and show restraint. So I will be consistent. I’m always consistent what I said to them before, is what I would say to the future.”
‘If you swing at me, I will swing back,' Badenoch warns
Kemi Badenoch has ben pressed about her recent rows with David Tennant and Nadine Dorries.
The Tory leadership candidate previously hit out at the Doctor Who actor in a campaign video saying the star is “the problem”.
The former business secretary was also engulfed in a row involving Ms Dorries, who claimed Ms Badenoch was aligned to a plot to control the Conservative Party.
Asked about the disagreements, she said: “I don’t know, I guess it must be being somebody who’s very forthright... There I was being nice, minding my own business and then they came after me.”
She added: “[David Tennant] told me to ‘shut up’. Why is it that people worry about someone who told back? They don’t like it when women talk back, they don’t like it when politicians talk back.
“I will talk back. I will not stand there and let people punch me. If you swing at me, I will swing back. But I don’t look for fights.”
Asked if she was “too Nigerian” for British politics, she added: “I doubt that, Nigerians tell me I’m too British. I am just Kemi, I am something that’s just different and unique. And that’s why I stand out in this contest, and that’s why I think members like me.”
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