Badenoch hits back at Tory MP who said she’s ‘too preoccupied’ with her children to be party leader
Kemi Badenoch has hit back at a Tory MP’s suggestion that she can’t lead the party because she is too “preoccupied” with her children, saying “men have parental responsibilities too”.
Sir Christopher Chope, the Conservative MP for Christchurch, said earlier on Tuesday that he was supporting Robert Jenrick in the leadership race because he brought “more energy and commitment to the campaign”.
He went on to say: “As much as I like Kemi, she is preoccupied with her own children, quite understandably.”
Asked whether she could be both a mother and a party leader, Ms Badenoch told GB News: “Of course you can. I love my children. I have the most beautiful children in the world. I want to spend as much time with them as possible.
“I was able to be a great business secretary and trade secretary and equalities minister, effectively doing three jobs while balancing my home life.”
On what she would say to Sir Christopher, she said: “I might remind him that it isn’t always women who have parental responsibilities, men do too.”
Mother-of-three Ms Badenoch’s youngest child is five and her eldest is 12, while Mr Jenrick also has three children between the ages of eight and 13.
In the interview, with ITV News Meridian, Sir Christopher said: “Robert’s children are a bit older, and I think it’s important that whoever leads the opposition has got an immense amount of time and energy.”
Sir Christopher Chope, the Conservative MP for Christchurch.
Pic: UK Parliament
He rejected that he meant mothers with young children can’t lead political parties, telling the broadcaster: “I’m not saying that at all – I was one of Margaret Thatcher’s staunchest supporters.
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“What gives me the concern is that I understand from colleagues that Kemi spends a lot of time with her family which I don’t resent at all… but the consequence of it is you can’t spend all your time with your family at the same time as being leader of the opposition.
“You could argue that Margaret Thatcher’s family suffered as a result of the commitment and dedication which she gave to leading our country. It’s a perfectly fair point.”
Sir Christopher’s comments have sparked a backlash from within the Tory party, including from Mr Jenrick himself.
Speaking to GB News, which hosted a leadership event this evening, the former immigration minister said: “He was wrong. He was definitely wrong.
“Kemi and I both have three children. She’s a great Mum. I’d like to think I’m a great Dad.”
Kemi Badenoch. Pic: AP
Shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins posted on X: “This is the 2020s, not the 1950s. All working mums and dads juggle family, career and general life.
“That one of our final two impressive candidates also happens to be a mum reflects the modern Conservative Party and modern life. Here’s to all working mums.”
And Nickie Aitken, the former MP for Cities of London and Westminster, wrote: “I was 7 months pregnant and with a toddler in tow when first elected a councillor in 2006.
“During their childhoods I became a council leader and MP. Like all working mums, political or otherwise, I juggled and made it work with my husband. Chope’s comments just show what a dinosaur he really is.”
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Sir Christopher’s comments are reminiscent of the 2016 Tory leadership campaign, when Andrea Leadsom, then an energy minister, suggested in an interview she would make a better party leader and prime minister than Theresa May because she was a mother and had “a very real stake” in the UK’s future.
Ms Leadsom later apologised to her opponent and withdrew from the race, leaving Mrs May unopposed. The now Baroness May went on to lead the party and was prime minister from 2016 to 2019.
Ms Badenoch and Mr Jenrick are the final two candidates vying to replace Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader after James Cleverly, the candidate from the centre, was knocked out of the contest last week.
The party membership vote will close at 5pm on Thursday 31 October and the winner will be announced on Saturday 2 November.
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Norman Tebbit: Former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government dies aged 94
Norman Tebbit, the former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government, has died at the age of 94.
Lord Tebbit died “peacefully at home” late on Monday night, his son William confirmed.
One of Mrs Thatcher’s most loyal cabinet ministers, he was a leading political voice throughout the turbulent 1980s.
He held the posts of employment secretary, trade secretary, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Conservative party chairman before resigning as an MP in 1992 after his wife was left disabled by the Provisional IRA’s bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
He considered standing for the Conservative leadership after Mrs Thatcher’s resignation in 1990, but was committed to taking care of his wife.
Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit in 1987 after her election victory. Pic: PA
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called him an “icon” in British politics and was “one of the leading exponents of the philosophy we now know as Thatcherism”.
“But to many of us it was the stoicism and courage he showed in the face of terrorism, which inspired us as he rebuilt his political career after suffering terrible injuries in the Brighton bomb, and cared selflessly for his wife Margaret, who was gravely disabled in the bombing,” she wrote on X.
“He never buckled under pressure and he never compromised. Our nation has lost one of its very best today and I speak for all the Conservative family and beyond in recognising Lord Tebbit’s enormous intellect and profound sense of duty to his country.
“May he rest in peace.”
Lord Tebbit and his wife Margaret stand outside the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Pic: PA
Tory grandee David Davis told Sky News Lord Tebbit was a “great working class Tory, always ready to challenge establishment conventional wisdom for the bogus nonsense it often was”.
“He was one of Thatcher’s bravest and strongest lieutenants, and a great friend,” Sir David said.
“He had to deal with the agony that the IRA visited on him and his wife, and he did so with characteristic unflinching courage. He was a great man.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage said Lord Tebbit “gave me a lot of help in my early days as an MEP”.
He was “a great man. RIP,” he added.
Lord Tebbit as employment secretary in 1983 with Mrs Thatcher. Pic: PA
Born to working-class parents in north London, he was made a life peer in 1992, where he sat until he retired in 2022.
Lord Tebbit was trade secretary when he was injured in the Provisional IRA’s bombing in Brighton during the Conservative Party conference in 1984.
Five people died in the attack and Lord Tebbit’s wife, Margaret, was left paralysed from the neck down. She died in 2020 at the age of 86.
Before entering politics, his first job, aged 16, was at the Financial Times where he had his first experience of trade unions and vowed to “break the power of the closed shop”.
He then trained as a pilot with the RAF – at one point narrowly escaping from the burning cockpit of a Meteor 8 jet – before becoming the MP for Epping in 1970 then for Chingford in 1974.
Lord Tebbit during an EU debate in the House of Lords in 1997. Pic: PA
As a cabinet minister, he was responsible for legislation that weakened the powers of the trade unions and the closed shop, making him the political embodiment of the Thatcherite ideology that was in full swing.
His tough approach was put to the test when riots erupted in Brixton, south London, against the backdrop of high rates of unemployment and mistrust between the black community and the police.
He was frequently misquoted as having told the unemployed to “get on your bike”, and was often referred to as “Onyerbike” for some time afterwards.
What he actually said was he grew up in the ’30s with an unemployed father who did not riot, “he got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it”.
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