Kemi Badenoch has vowed to crack down on “free speech boundaries” as she criticised the “messy” legislation put in place by the outgoing Conservative government.
The Tory leadership hopeful spoke to GB News from the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, where she claimed that the party are “talking right, but governing left”.
Admitting it was “of the things they did badly” in Government, Badenoch told host Tom Harwood that “equality under law” is one of her “key principles” in campaigning to lead the party.
Badenoch explained: “We have created all sorts of legislation that is now a mess. We have non hate crime incidents that police report, and this is one of the things I’m afraid that we did badly in government.
Kemi Badenoch says the Conservatives are ‘talking right but governing left’
GB News
“We keep legislating for the left. This is why people are upset with us. We talk right, we govern left.
“We need to be very clear about free speech and its boundaries, not blur the law to the point where the police don’t know who’s doing something wrong and whether they’re going to get in trouble if they arrest this person, but not that person.”
Turning the discussion to Badenoch’s campaign to lead the party following their historic loss at the General Election, the candidate was pressed by host Tom Harwood on whether she has “rubbed too many people up the wrong way” to efficiently lead the party.
Badenoch fiercely disagreed with Tom, telling GB News: “If you look at who’s supporting me, you’ll find that the people who’ve worked with me the most are my supporters. If I was rubbing people up the wrong way, it wouldn’t be them.
Badenoch was challenged on whether she would leave the ECHR
GB News
“All the ministers who worked in my department are supporting my leadership. I think that people want some directness. People want to hear politicians speak their minds, rather than hide behind waffly language.”
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She added: “The thing about me rubbing up colleagues the wrong way is not true. It’s something put about by people who are competing against me. I get on with my colleagues.
“I think it has been very interesting where some candidates have set out their stall and other candidates are talking about everybody else.”
Calling out one candidate in particular, Badenoch was keen to set to record straight on claims made by rival Robert Jenrick, who claimed Badenoch is “opposed to a cap on migration” and “doesn’t care about the numbers” when it comes to migration.
Making her feelings clear on the remarks, Badenoch stated: “It was really interesting – he said two things about me that weren’t true. One that I’ve said that numbers don’t matter, numbers do matter when it comes to immigration, and that I’m not opposed to a cap.
The Tory leadership hopeful sat down with GB News at the Tory party conference in Birmingham
GB News
“I just think that you can have a cap and the wrong people still come in. I want us to talk about who is coming into our country.”
When asked by Tom if she believes Jenrick should receive a “yellow card” for taking aim at her, Badenoch responded: “I’m very happy to correct the record, but it shows that he’s not actually reading or listening to what I’m saying.
“Whenever people do things that are about other candidates, people can see I’m just focused on my own campaign, and it’s for the party authorities to decide.”