Kemi Badenoch slaps down Tory MP Chris Chope over parenting jibe
Kemi Badenoch has slapped down a Tory backbencher who said she was too ‘preoccupied with her children’ to be party leader, saying parenting is a ‘two person job’.
Ms Badenoch, the favourite to become Conservative Party leader next month, said dads need to step up more after her ability to be leader of the opposition was questioned by Sir Christopher Chope.
Sir Christopher, 77, was branded out of touch after he suggested that she may lack the ‘time and energy’ to combine being leader of the opposition with motherhood.
She has two daughters and a son, from 11 to five, but her opponent Robert Jenrick also has three daughters aged 12, 10 and eight.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Ms Badenoch said there needed to be more discussion of the role of fathers in parenting, adding the party had too often focused on single mothers in the past.
‘I think we ran into trouble decades ago when we were very critical of single parenthood. It sounded as if we were always talking about single mums,’ she said.
‘Where are the dads? Why are the dads not there? Why are they not looking after their families?’
Ms Badenoch, the favourite to become Conservative Party leader next month, said dads need to step up more after her ability to be leader of the opposition was questioned by Sir Christopher Chope.
Sir Christopher, 77, was branded out of touch after he suggested that she may lack the ‘time and energy’ to combine being leader of the opposition with motherhood.
She added: ‘I remember early on as an MP, I did quite a lot of casework on absent fathers who the Child Support Agency was chasing. I think if people make children, they should be made to look after them. Family is important.
‘And if you look at the prison population, the vast majority of the male prison population did not grow up with their fathers. If fathers look after their children better, they will be less likely to end up in prison. And those are the sorts of things that we need to talk about more.’
Sir Christopher, the Christchurch MP and a former minister under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, made the remarks on ITV Meridian’s The Last Word last week.
‘Robert’s children are a bit older and I think it is important that whoever leaders the opposition has an immense amount of time and energy,’ Mr Chope told the programme.
Asked by Labour’s Helena Dollimore if he was saying ‘a woman shouldn’t be standing to be leader of a political party because she’s got young kids’ Mr Chope replied: ‘I’m not saying that at all. I was one of Margaret Thatcher’s strongest and staunchest supporters.
‘What gives me the concern is because I understand from talking to colleagues that Kemi spends a lot of time with her family, which I don’t resent at all.
‘But the consequence of it is that you can’t spend all your time with your family as at the same time being leader of the opposition.
Ms Badenoch has two daughters and a son, from 11 to five, but her opponent Robert Jenrick also has three daughters aged 12, 10 and eight.
‘You could argue that Margaret Thatcher’s family suffered as a result of the commitment and dedication which she gave to leading our country.’
Mr Jenrick has distanced himself from Sir Christopher’s comments, describing them as ‘definitely wrong’.
Meanwhile, the former immigration minister gave his own interview to the Sunday Telegraph in which he pledged to repeal the Climate Change Act and the Equality Act if he became prime minister.
Mr Jenrick has already said the UK should leave the European Convention on Human Rights but widened his attack to cover a range of Blair-era laws that he said prevented ministers from making the decisions they wanted to.
He said: ‘The next Conservative government must do better to deliver a genuinely conservative country. We must repeal and amend the Climate Change Act, Equality Act and Human Rights Act and restore decision-making to ministers accountable to Parliament.’
