BBCA comment from leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch suggesting maternity pay has “gotten way too far” has dominated the first day of the Conservative Party conference.
The shadow home secretary later said she was “misunderstood” – she believed in the maternity pay, and her comments about the need for more to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses.
But he says he has been overtaken by leadership rivals as the race to replace Rishi Sunak heats up.
One member of the rival camp told the BBC: “We’ve had such a good day that we hardly need to say anything!”
During an interview with Times Radio, Badenoch said the main theme of the Tory leadership was to ensure that the state does not interfere with business.
Badenoch was asked if he thought the mother’s salary was at the right level.
She said: “Maternity pay varies, depending on who is working – but statutory maternity pay is a function of tax, tax comes from the worker.
“We are taking from one group of people and giving to another. This, in my view, is too much.
“Businesses are closing, businesses are not starting in the UK, because they say the regulatory burden is too high.”
She was then asked if her comment meant “maternity pay is too big”.
Badenoch said: “I have gone too far – too far the other way in terms of general business regulations.”
He added that “the exact amount of maternity pay in my view is neither here nor there.”
Statutory maternity pay starts at 90% of the average weekly earnings for six weeks – then drops to a minimum of £184.03 or 90% of the mother’s average earnings for 33 weeks.
Kemi Badenoch is proudly outspoken and tries to make a good out of saying things that others think are too soft to take.
An example is that he said this weekend that not all cultures are equal.
He has also repeatedly sought in this campaign to make arguments about broad principles, rather than specific policy promises.
What has happened here is that they have tried to make an argument about the size and scope of government, while repeatedly being asked specific questions about maternity pay.
After the interview, Badenoch sent in X: “Contrary to what some say, I clearly say that the burden of regulation on business has gone too far … of course I believe in the mother’s salary!”
He then follows this with a second social media postwhere he said: “Surely pay the mother is not too big … no mother of 3 children think that.”
Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick told a Conservative Party fringe event that he “disagrees with Kemi on this”.
Jenrick told Conservative Party members: “I’m a father of three girls – I want to see them get the support they need when they enter the workplace.
“Our maternity pay is among the lowest in the OECD. I think the Conservative Party should be strong on the side of parents and working mothers who are trying to get by.
“Nobody said having kids was easy, why would we want to make it harder?”
Tom Tugendhat, who will also be the next leader of the party, said: “I think maternity and paternity care is very important.
“One of the things that I miss, a few years ago is that we don’t have the same rights in terms of paternity care and I think a lot of people, fathers would like to spend more time with their children.”
A fourth Tory leadership candidate, James Cleverly, also rejected Badenoch’s claims.
She said: “When it comes to working mothers, childcare costs are very expensive.”
The Badenoch supporters also weighed in, trying to cool the situation.
Julia Lopez, the shadow culture minister who is supporting Badenoch in the leadership race, described line as “pile of confected maternity”.
“No one in our party today knows more about the challenges of juggling motherhood with professional life,” Lopez said.
“In rhetoric and in reality, Kemi has supported women (including) by supporting mothers’ wages and better childcare – but we still have challenges.”
His allies emphasized what they saw as a positive – “he doesn’t talk like a politician”, as he told the BBC.
But it’s also true that her words are most ambiguous and suggest, albeit unintentionally, that mother’s wages have gone too far.
