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Tory leadership contender Kemi Badenoch has suggested that maternity pay in the UK is “excessive” and that people had more children before it was widely introduced, before rowing back on her position.
Her rivals Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat signalled their disagreement with her sentiments, as the first day of the Conservatives’ annual conference in Birmingham got under way on Sunday.
Badenoch also drew attention over her claim that not all cultures are “equally valid” and criticised “recent immigrants who hate Israel”, adding: “I don’t think those who bring foreign conflicts here should be welcome.”
Sparking a debate among the leadership contenders about maternity rights, Badenoch, the former business secretary, told Times Radio that maternity pay was “a function of tax”, adding: “Tax comes from people who are working, we’re taking from one group of people and giving to another. This, in my view, is excessive.”
Arguing that businesses were closing because “the burden of regulation is too high”, she added: “We need to allow businesses, especially small businesses, to make more of their own decisions. The exact amount of maternity pay, in my view, is neither here nor there.”
Badenoch also remarked: “There was a time when there wasn’t any maternity pay and people were having more babies.”
Jenrick hit back most fervently against her intervention, insisting the UK had a “fair system of maternity pay”, arguing: “We’ve got to ensure that working mums and families have the support they need.”
Tugendhat said it was “incredibly important that women have the ability to choose how to live their lives”, while Cleverly said: “You need to ask Kemi about Kemi’s comments.”
Trades Union Congress general secretary Paul Nowak said Badenoch’s comments were “hopelessly out of touch”, adding that maternity pay in the UK was lower than in many other countries, “forcing too many mums back from leave early”.
Badenoch later appeared to soften her views, saying on social media: “Of course maternity pay isn’t excessive . . . no mother of 3 kids thinks that. But we must talk about the burden of excessive business regulation otherwise we might as well be the Labour party.”
Earlier in the day, she claimed not all cultures are “equally valid”, prompting the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg to ask her exactly who she meant. Badenoch replied: “You want me to say ‘Muslims’, but it isn’t all Muslims. I’m not going to play that game.”
Asked which cultures were “less valid?” she said that when she was out canvassing a woman answered the door to her and said: “I can’t speak to you, I will get my husband.”
“I don’t think that is as equally valid as our culture,” Badenoch said.
Separately, in a Sunday Telegraph article, she wrote: “We cannot assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border, or that their cultures are equally valid. They are not.”
Badenoch is the bookmakers’ second favourite to succeed Rishi Sunak as Tory leader, but former immigration minister Jenrick is regarded as the clear frontrunner.
Jenrick, speaking ahead of the four-day conference, said immigration was the most important issue in the contest, but that the NHS and economy were key too.
He has promised to end the era of “mass migration”, imposing a legal cap on immigration in the tens of thousands, as well as promising to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, which he claims impedes Britain’s attempts to control its borders.
The Tory conference has been described as an extended “beauty pageant” for the four contenders vying to succeed Sunak, who will be replaced on November 2.
Tugendhat, former security minister, and Cleverly, former foreign secretary, are both seen to be flagbearers for the party’s moderate centre.
Sunak is expected to appear briefly in Birmingham on Sunday to appeal for unity and thank party members for their work during the party’s general election campaign.
He will then head home on Sunday evening, clearing the way for the four leadership contenders to court MPs and party members at various fringe meetings and two set-piece events in the main hall.
On Monday and Tuesday, the four candidates will face questions from the floor and on Wednesday they will make speeches setting out their pitch.
Tory MPs will next month decide on a shortlist of two, with party members having the final say in the contest. The result of the run-off will be announced on November 2.
There will be unwelcome distractions for the party offstage during the Birmingham conference, with Boris Johnson promoting his memoirs Unleashed and making claims such as his abortive plot to send special forces to the Netherlands to extract Covid-19 vaccines.
Liz Truss, another former premier, will be in Birmingham on Monday, offering advice on how to generate more economic growth.
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