Reuters
Kemi Badenoch attends Conservative party conference in Birmingham
Conservative leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch said “not all cultures are equally valid” when deciding who should be allowed into the UK.
In an article written for the Sunday Telegraph at the start of the Conservative Party conference, she said: “Our country is not a dormitory for people who come here to make money. This is our home.”
“We expect the people we choose to welcome to share our values and contribute to our society.”
Mr Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, James Cleverley and Tom Tugendhat are all vying for the Conservative leadership post after Rishi Sunak resigned following the summer’s general election defeat.
All four will have the chance to make their case in Birmingham over the next four days, culminating in four 20-minute speeches by each candidate on Wednesday.
MPs will then narrow the field down to two candidates, with Conservative members having the final say in an online vote. Results will be announced on November 2nd.
In an article for the Telegraph, Ms Badenoch sets out what she calls a “tough” policy on immigration.
She is calling for an overhaul of the system to make it a top priority for all civil servants, not just the Home Office, and will not rule out withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights.
She also called for a better “integration strategy” that emphasized British values and culture.
Drawing on her background as an immigrant who was born in the UK but spent her childhood in Nigeria, Badenoch writes: This is also a practice that is at odds with British values.
“We cannot be naive and think that immigrants will automatically abandon the ethnic animosities inherited from their ancestors at our borders, or that all cultures are equally valid, when in fact this is not the case. there is no.
“For example, I was shocked by the number of recent immigrants to the UK who hate Israel. That sentiment has no place here.”
Meanwhile, James Cleverley has set out plans to give Conservative MPs a greater say in shaping policy and selecting candidates.
“The truth is we need to end the Tory psychodrama that has been damaging our party for so long,” he said.
“MPs and volunteers cannot be expected to go campaigning while the parliament is divided in Westminster.
“Fixing our party will take effort and speed. I’m ready for that challenge and will do it from day one. We need to be all in.”
Tom Tugendhat said the Conservatives lost the general election because of a “lack of vision and failure of leadership”.
He vowed that if elected leader he would restore British pride and restore the Conservative Party’s “fighting spirit”.
“We have always been on the right side of history. We should never apologize for who we are and for standing up for our values. Patriotism is not a dirty word. Patriotism is the best antidote to decline.”
Leadership candidate Robert Jenrick said he had not run away from “hard truths” during his campaign and was “determined to bring back the Red Wall” to win the next election.
“We do so by listening to the country, accepting our shortcomings and showing the country that we have changed,” he wrote in the Daily Express.
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Lord Haig gave Conservative members the final say when he was leader.
Meanwhile, former Conservative Party leader William (now Lord Hague) told the BBC that it would be “better” if the party’s leadership was decided by MPs rather than party members.
Hague was elected Conservative Party leader by MPs only under the old system in 1997, when the current system was introduced.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour: “That’s my responsibility, I’m the one who introduced this rule.
“But now we see that the world has changed and political parties have become smaller.
“With party membership numbers so low, it would be better to leave decisions in the hands of MPs.”
But he said that because MPs “still have a very big role to play”, they should “choose who they support so that they don’t give the impression that they’re happy with someone they’re not.” We need to be extremely careful.”
