Kemi Badenoch: ‘Of course not all cultures are equally valid’

At the Conservative party conference in Birmingham this morning, the Tory leadership candidates set out their stalls. Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg, Badenoch said it was essential that there was a ‘shared culture and a shared identity’ in the UK, and that it was important to choose ‘who comes into the country’. Asked which cultures in particular were less valid, Badenoch said: ‘lots… cultures that believe in child marriage.. or that women don’t have equal rights’. Pressed to be more specific, Badenoch told Kuenssberg: ‘I know what you’re trying to do. You want me to say Muslims. But it isn’t all Muslims.’ Badenoch argued that we need to emphasise ‘the thing that we share… British values’. Kuenssberg suggested Badenoch might herself be emphasising difference and conflict with her words.

Badenoch: ‘What Israel did was extraordinary’

Asked by Trevor Phillips what she would say to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if she was Conservative leader, Badenoch said she would be ‘congratulating’ him, and that Israel had shown it had ‘moral clarity in dealing with its enemies and the enemies of the West’.