Kemi Badenoch is not a “loose cannon”, a Conservative MP supporter of her leadership campaign has suggested.
Andrew Bowie, who serves as the Conservative Party’s veterans spokesperson in the interim shadow cabinet, suggested Badenoch’s political style could rather “generate the weather.”
The former business secretary was embroiled in a political row over maternity pay throughout Conservative Party conference last week, after appearing to suggest it was “excessive.”
Badenoch later disavowed the comments, while also insisting she did not misspeak. Speaking to Times Radio on the conference’s opening day, the shadow housing secretary suggested that regulations around maternity pay had “gone too far” and were tying businesses in too much red tape.
Asked whether the benefit was set at the right level, she said: “Maternity pay varies depending on who you work for, but it is a function — where it’s statutory maternity pay — a function of tax.
“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.”
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Maternity pay row points to larger problem for Kemi Badenoch
The comments were quickly rejected by other contenders, including Tom Tugendhat who said he wanted to see “strong maternity and paternity pay”.
Later during Conservative conference, Badenoch joked that up to 10 per cent of civil servants are “very, very bad”.
Asked at a fringe event if she approved of term limits for civil servants, an idea proposed by Vivek Ramaswamy when he was running to be the Republican candidate for president, Badenoch went on to joke that the 10 per cent of “very bad” civil servants are “should be in prison bad.”
But Bowie rejected the accusation that Badenoch was a “loose cannon” on Wednesday morning, claiming the Conservative leadership contender is instead “somebody that doesn’t shy away from a fight”.
“She is somebody I served as a junior minister in government”, Bowie said, “she is somebody that doesn’t shy away from a fight, I think that is very true.
“But she is somebody that is willing and able to take the tough decisions, has proven that in her time in government.
“And we need somebody that is going to cut through, we need somebody that is able to blast through the noise and generate the weather and I think that is what she has proven that she has been able to do and we are going to need that because let’s face it, we are in a much diminished form, 121 MPs, compared to where we were.
“To be able to garner any interest and any attention we are going to need someone that actually makes the noise, that is able to get us those headlines and I think Kemi is the only candidate left in the race that is able to do that.”
Bowie also insisted that Badenoch is the only remaining Tory leadership candidate who is “serious” about uniting the Conservative Party.
After it was suggested that Badenoch and fellow leadership contender Robert Jenrick were in a battle for the same votes this contest, Bowie pushed back.
The veterans minister said: “I don’t think we should get into drawn into whether a candidate is on the Right or the Left of the Conservative Party.
“What we need is a candidate that is able to unite the party, appeal to the British public and put us back in a position that the British people feel they can vote for us in four years’ time.”
He added: “I think the only candidate serious about being able to do that is Kemi Badenoch and that is why I am backing her.”
The comments came after Tom Tugendhat was eliminated from the Conservative leadership on Tuesday afternoon, after recording the support of only 20 MPs, one down on his September total.
Badenoch came third in this latest round of voting with 30 supporters, behind Jenrick on 31 and new frontrunner James Cleverly on 39. The shadow home secretary put on an additional 18 supporters after his performance at Conservative Party conference won widespread praise.
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Tugendhat knocked out of Conservative leadership contest as Cleverly surges
