Kemi Badenoch: ‘This is what happens to strong women. If you don’t play ball, they’ll come after you’
The IndependentSign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. I will always do the right thing, and I won’t be quiet when it is time to speak up.” The former business secretary was clearly hurt by one jibe by a Tory MP saying she should spend more time being a mother, retorting: “All I want to do is spend time with my children.” But she also said she was “flattered” by comparisons with another outspoken female Tory leader, Margaret Thatcher – adding there were “similarities” between them. In a wide-ranging interview, Ms Badenoch also: Discussed her belief Britain will have to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, despite not making it a policy like her opponent Robert Jenrick Suggested that two-tier policing was a problem in the UK Insisted that officers should be backed to the hilt over the Chris Kaba killing Claimed the party’s future “is not about right and left” but “right and wrong” Ms Badenoch admitted she was still taken aback by criticism over her stance on trans issues from David Tennant at an LGBT+ awards ceremony earlier this year, where he said from the stage that he wished the then-equalities minister would “shut up”. If you don’t play ball, then they will come after you.” open image in gallery David Tennant said he wished Badenoch ‘would shut up’ When it was put to her that right-wing Conservative “strong women” like her or former rival Suella Braverman are subject to this sort of abuse more, Ms Badenoch did not disagree. She describes the claims that she is a puppet of former cabinet colleague Michael Gove as “very strange” but far from new, and notes that her supporters range from former One Nation group chair Damian Green on the party’s left to Brexiteer former European Research Group chair Steve Baker on the right, and also include two ex-leaders in Iain Duncan Smith and William Hague.