Politics

Kemi Badenoch running her leadership campaign from home of wealthy donor

Tory leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch has been running her leadership campaign from the home of a wealthy donor, according to Bloomberg reports.

Despite the Conservatives going on the attack over Sir Keir Starmer’s use of a London flat in the run-up to the general election, which he declared, Rishi Sunak’s potential successor has been doing precisely the same thing – and has yet to make that fact public.

Bloomberg notes that Badenoch has been running her leadership campaign from the home of Neil Record, who is the chair of the climate science denial group Net Zero Watch.

Neil is also the former chair of the Institute of Economic Affairs, a think-tank closely linked to Liz Truss that was originally based on the infamous Tufton Street.

The revelations have come to light as Badenoch attempts to revive her leadership campaign after it threatened to be derailed by a series of unfortunate incidents.

She recently suggested that tens of thousands of civil servants “should be in prison” due to them leaking official secrets, undermining their ministers and being “agitating”.

The comments came hot on the heels of controversial remarks made in relation to maternity pay, which Badenoch suggested had “gone too far” as she set out how she would ease the burden on businesses.

Speaking to Times Radio, she said: “Maternity pay varies, depending on who you work for – but statutory maternity pay is a function of tax, tax comes from people who are working.

“We’re taking from one group of people and giving to another. This, in my view, is excessive.”

Related: The British public’s preferred choice for next Tory leader is… Don’t care

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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