20 Controversies Which Tell You All You Need To Know About The Two Tories Left In The Leadership Race
The very drawn-out Conservative Party leadership contest is almost over – but who will be the victor?
The party members have until October 31 to cast their votes, and, having stayed on as a rather reticent caretaker leader for almost four months, Rishi Sunak will finally be able to hand over the reins of the party on November 2.
Former home secretary James Cleverly, perceived as a moderate within the party, was unexpectedly ousted in the last round of the MPs’ ballots earlier this month.
The final two candidates are now right-wing, former ministers, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, both of whom are known for regularly causing a stir.
So, as a new era looms for the beleaguered Conservative Party, here’s a look at the most eye-catching moments from the last leadership hopefuls standing during a rather chaotic contest...
Kemi Badenoch
1. Her row with David Tennant
Badenoch launched her leadership bid by reminding Tory members how actor David Tennant had called for her to “shut up” over her belief on the trans community earlier this year.
In a video promoting her plan to lead the Conservatives, Badenoch said: “No, I will not shut up.
“When you have that kind of cultural establishment trying to keep Conservatives down, you need someone like me, who is not afraid of Doctor Who or whoever, and who is going to take the fight to them and not let them try and keep us down.
“That’s not going to happen with me.”
2. Claiming maternity pay is “excessive”
The Tory leadership hopeful sparked a row at the Conservative Party conference when she told Times Radio: “Maternity pay varies depending on who you work for, but it is a function, where it’s statutory maternity pay. It is 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.”
She later had to issue a “clarification” saying she was actually talking about “the burden of regulation on businesses”.
3. Alleging people are “too scared” to start businesses
Badenoch doubled down on her concerns over business during the conference.
At a fringe event, recalling how a constituent explained she had to close her business because she could not afford wages or maternity pay, Badenoch claimed: “We are overburdening businesses.
“We are overburdening them with regulation, with tax. People aren’t starting businesses any more because they’re too scared.”
4. Suggesting young Tories get marked down at university because of politics
While at the conference, Badenoch said “socialism” has returned to the UK now Labour are in power.
She said young Conservatives are now “afraid to share their politics with other students, because they will be attacked, that they are marked down by lecturers because of their beliefs”.
5. Claiming a tenth of civil servants should be “in prison”
Again, while speaking to the party faithful, Badenoch said 10% of civil servants are “absolutely magnificent”.
But she added: “There’s about 5 to 10% of them who are very, very bad – you know, should be in prison bad – leaking official secrets, undermining their ministers, agitating - I have some of it in my department – usually union led.”
The audience laughed after she spoke, suggesting it may have been a joke.
6. Suggesting not all “cultures are equally valid”
Badenoch wrote an article for the Sunday Telegraph saying “we cannot be naive and assume [...] all cultures are equally valid” as “they are not”.
She added: “I am struck, for example, by the number of recent immigrants to the UK who hate Israel.”
7. Huge fan of Elon Musk
Badenoch revealed she is a supporter of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.
She said: “I think Elon Musk has been a fantastic thing for freedom of speech. I will hold my hand up and say, I’m a huge fan of Elon Musk.”
Her comments came weeks after the X CEO suggested “civil war was inevitable” in the UK during the far-right riots and repeated the right-wing conspiracy theory of two-tier policing.
8. A controversial take on class
Speaking on Christopher Hope’s Political Podcast, Badenoch claimed: “I grew up in a middle class family, but I became working class when I was 16, working in McDonald’s.”
9. “I don’t make gaffes”
Shortly after that remark about class, Badenoch told the podcast: “I never have gaffes, or apologising for something that I said, [saying] ‘oh that’s not what I meant,’ I never have to clarify, because I think very carefully about what I say.”
10. Endorsing a pamphlet “stigmatising” autism
Badenoch wrote the foreword for the ‘Conservatism in Crisis’ report which said an autism diagnosis “offers economic advantages and protections”.
She claimed “mental health has become something that society, schools and employers have to work around”.
Robert Jenrick
1. A strong interest in Thatcher
The Tory leadership hopeful told the Conservative Party conference he gave his daughter “Thatcher” as a middle name in a reference to the late prime minister.
He also celebrated what would have been the Iron Lady’s 99th birthday with a countdown and a Union Jack cake.
2. Calls to get NHS chief sacked
Jenrick told The Sunday Times that he wonders if the head of the NHS in England, Amanda Pritchard, is “the best person Britain has to run the NHS”.
He said: “It’s nothing personal against her. I know she’s very professional. But I do think it’s time for someone new, who gets that NHS productivity has to improve.”
3. His remarks on the SAS
As part of his claim about the ways the ECHR restricts the UK, Jenrick used footage of an SAS soldier, who has since died, in northern Afghanistan in around 2002 in one of his campaign videos.
Jenrick sparked backlash when he claimed: “Our special forces are killing rather than capturing terrorists because our lawyers tell us that if they are caught, the European court will set them free.”
4. Wearing a ‘Hamas are terrorists’ hoodie
Jenrick was pictured wearing a “Hamas are terrorists” hoodie at a Conservative Friends of Israel meeting.
5. UK has to leave the ECHR or the Tories ‘die’
The former immigration minister suggested the UK had to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), or die, because of the way it restricts how immigration is tackled.
He said: “This is more than just ‘leave or amend’: frankly, our party doesn’t have a future unless we take a stand and fix this problem. It’s leave or die for our party – I’m for leave.”
6. Installing the Star of David at UK ports
Jenrick told a fringe event at the Tory conference: “A small thing that I fought for when I was the immigration minister was to ensure that every Israeli citizen could enter our country through the e-gate, through the easy access.
“So that at every airport and point of entry to our great country there is the Star of David there as a symbol that we support Israel, we stand with Israel.”
7. Support for Trump
“If I were an American citizen, I would be voting for Donald Trump,” he said in August.
However he watered these comments down a bit later, saying he does not agree with everything the Republican candidate says and “respects” Kamala Harris.
8. Promoting “English identity”
In an article for the Daily Mail, Jenrick wrote: “The combination of unprecedented migration alongside the dismantling of our national culture, non-integrating multiculturalism and the denigration of our identity has presented huge problems.”
He added: “It has had a clear impact on our culture, customs and cohesion. Taken together, the attitudes and policies of our metropolitan establishment have weakened English identity. They have put the very idea of England at risk.”
However, he was unable to explain exactly what he meant when pressed over his wording on Sky News.
9. Claiming anyone shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ in the street should be arrested
Speaking to Sky News about the August riots, Jenrick said: “I have been very critical of the police in the past, particularly around the attitude of some police forces to the protests since October 7 [Hamas’ attack on Israel.]
“I thought it was quite wrong somebody could shout Allahu Akbar on the streets of London and not be immediately arrested, or project genocidal chants onto Big Ben, and that person not be immediately arrested.”
He later defended himself, saying he was talking about “aggressive chanting” of the phrase.
10. Forgetting what he did while Home Office minister
Jenrick claimed the current PM Keir Starmer “signed us up to eight more years of uncontrolled levels of illegal migrants” after the government invited companies to manage the Western Jet Foil and Manston facilities.
Actually, the leadership hopeful signed off on those contracts himself when he was the immigration minister.