What Kemi Badenoch should learn from her maternity pay row

The first row of Tory conference has, unsurprisingly, involved Kemi Badenoch. The leadership contender was on Times Radio this morning where she was making a point about business regulation and ended up suggesting that maternity pay in this country was ‘excessive’. Here is a transcript of her exchange with Kate McCann:

KM: Do you think we’ve got the right levels of maternity pay at the moment?

KB: So, maternity pay varies depending on who you work for, but it is a function, whereas statutory maternity pay, it is a function of tax, tax comes from people who are working, we are taking from one group of people and giving to another, this in my view is excessive. Businesses are closing, businesses are not starting in the UK, because they say that the burden of regulation is too high…

KM: So maternity pay is excessive?

KB: …I think it’s gone too far the other way in terms of general business regulation, we need to allow businesses especially small businesses to make more of their own decisions.