Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch delivers a keynote speech during the CityUK International Conference at St Paul's, London. Picture date: Thursday April 18, 2024.
With the Tory leadership contest already in full-swing, things are about to shift up a gear this week. The four hopefuls will make their case at the Conservative Party Conference in the coming days – and Kemi Badenoch is already cranking up the rhetoric.
Badenoch, who has made a series of controversial and contentious comments stoking the culture wars in recent years, wrote in The Telegraph on Sunday to outline her stance on immigration. She has ruffled feathers again, by suggesting that ‘not all cultures are equally valid’.
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She also went on to claim that a high number of immigrants who have reached British shores recently ‘hate Israel’ – a sentiment which the firebrand politician believes has ‘no place in the UK’, and that individuals expressing these views would not be welcome in the UK.
“Culture is more than cuisine or clothes. It is also customs which may be at odds with British values. We cannot be naive and assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral hostilities at the border.”
“We also cannot assume that all cultures are equally valid. They are not. Those we chose to welcome should share our values. I am struck, for example, by the number of recent immigrants to the UK who hate Israel. That sentiment has no place here.” | Kemi Badenoch
Pressed for comment, Labour’s Pat McFadden chose the diplomatic approach, claiming that he would leave ‘culture war talking points’ to the Conservatives. He did, however, slam all four candidates for continue to push messages ‘rejected by the public’ at the last election.
Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly, and Tom Tugdenhat are all competing against Kemi Badenoch to replace the outgoing Rishi Sunak. Next month, the final shortlist will be trimmed down to just two names, and Tory members will choose the next leader. A result is expected on 2 November.
