Kemi Badenoch denies she’s ‘working scared’ throughout Tory contest
Kemi Badenoch tonight denied she’s running scared during the Conservative leadership contest as she took a swipe at rival Robert Jenrick‘s ‘big promises’.
The ex-business secretary told a TV debate she was a ‘engineer’ who could ‘fix’ the ‘broken system’ and ‘renew’ the Tories after their devastating general election loss.
Appearing on GB News alongside Mr Jenrick, Ms Badenoch dismissed a suggestion she was avoiding the limelight during her bid to replace Rishi Sunak as party leader.
Challenged about a perception her rival had been more prominent during the Tory contest with regular speeches and TV and radio interviews, Ms Badenoch replied: ‘I don’t just go on media just for the sake of going on media.
‘I go on media when I have something to say. That is how we want this.
‘I don’t believe anyone thinks that I am scared of scrutiny. I had it every day as an MP and as a minister. But what is key is that I don’t like fighting.
‘I don’t look for fights, but if someone brings a fight to Conservatives, I will fight for us. I will fight for our values. I am a champion.’
In an apparent dig at Mr Jenrick, who has made a series of pledges on migration policy, Ms Badenoch said the Tory contest was ‘not a test of who can make the biggest promises’.
Kemi Badenoch tonight denied she’s running scared during the Conservative leadership contest as she took a swipe at rival Robert Jenrick ‘s ‘big promises’
The ex-business secretary told a TV debate she was a ‘engineer’ who could ‘fix’ the ‘broken system’ and ‘renew’ the Tories after their devastating general election loss
Appearing on GB News alongside Mr Jenrick, Ms Badenoch dismissed a suggestion she was avoiding the limelight during her bid to replace Rishi Sunak as party leader
‘This is not a general election. We had one of those already, and we lost,’ she said.
‘This leadership contest is not a test of who can make the biggest promises.’
She added later: ‘The public removed us from government because they felt that we were not competent and that we were not delivering on our promises.
‘The answer is not to make new promises. The answer is to do the job they have given us properly, and that is the job of opposition.
‘If we can show that we have integrity, if we can show that we share their values, if we can show that we have learned the lessons of the past, then they will give us another chance.
‘That is why I’m standing for renewal. That is why I am not throwing out lots of policies.’
Earlier during the GB News debate, Mr Jenrick warned the Tories will ‘never be in government again’ unless they win back disaffected voters or those who switched to Reform UK in July.
He highlighted immigration as the key issue behind the party’s general election defeat and said a failure to deliver on pledges during 14 years in power explained ‘why our party is where it is right now’.
The Newark MP added: ‘It’s the reason that we lost four million of our people to Reform at the general election and millions more who decided to stay at home.
‘You know who those people are, whose trust we lost, and we’ve got to get them back. If we don’t get them back home to our party, we’ll never be in government again.’
Mr Jenrick repeated his call for Britain to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and to introduce a cap on legal migration in the ‘tens of thousands or lower’.
But the ex-minister dismissed a suggestion he is only wooing the Tory Right to win the party’s leadership, as he was challenged over his support for Remain at the EU referendum.
Asked if he could later tack to the political centre-ground if he is victorious over Ms Badenoch, he said: ‘Not at all. My values have never changed. My values are rooted in the place I grew up in Wolverhampton.
‘In the upbringing I had for my parents, their values of family, of small business, of self-reliance, of patriotism.
‘Those are values that drove me into politics and why I want to be leader of this party.
‘I’ve been very clear of what I want to do and it involves fundamentally changing this party so that we can win again.
‘And I believe passionately that you will never win, we won’t win as a party, unless we get back the Conservative family again, unite the right of British politics.
‘And that begins with migration.’
