Tory beauty parade begins: Kemi Badenoch says too many immigrants ‘hate Israel’ and ‘not all cultures are equal’ as leadership hopefuls woo activists at conference in Birmingham

A Tory beauty parade kicked off today as would-be leaders make their pitches to activists.

Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat are laying out their cases at the party’s annual conference in Birmingham. 

Ms Badenoch and Mr Jenrick are the favourites to take the crown from Rishi Sunak after his humiliating defeat at the election.

And they have both been focusing their fire on immigration – with Ms Badenoch claiming too many people with anti-Israel views have been allowed to migrate to Britain. She insisted that ‘not all cultures are equal’, suggesting child marriage and women’s rights as topics that were non-negotiable.

‘When you go to other countries they demand that you believe in it,’ she told Sky News. 

Her combative stance was underlined in a separate interview with the BBC, where she accused Laura Kuenssberg of ‘trying to get me to say’ that the problem was Muslims coming to the UK.

Ms Badenoch also said she would ‘congratulate’ Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on strikes that killed the Hezbollah leadership in Beirut, and the country was showing ‘moral clarity’ in taking out ‘terrorists’. 

And she warned critics such as Doctor Who star David Tennant – with whom she rowed about trans rights: ‘If you swing at me I will punch back.’

Describing her appeal to voters, Ms Badenoch said: ‘I am something that is just different and unique.’ 

As the candidates mount their charm offensive today:

• Mr Jenrick said the immigration system was at the top of his list to address if he wins the contest;
• Mr Cleverly blamed ‘constant infighting’ and ‘bickering’ for the Tories’ defeat and argued he had been a ‘team player’ in government; 
• Mr Tugendhat insisted his public school background was not a drawback to him being the next Tory leader;
• Contenders have all weighed in behind Rosie Duffield after she quit Labour and slammed Keir Starmer over sleaze. 

Ms Badenoch and rival Robert Jenrick were both interviewed on the BBC this morning 

Presenter Laura Kuenssberg tossed a coin on air to decide who was questioned first 

Ms Badenoch accused Kuenssberg of ‘trying to get me to say’ that the problem was Muslims coming to the UK

Mr Jenrick said the immigration system was at the top of his list to address if he wins the Tory contest

Kemi Badenoch (pictured) and Mr Jenrick are the favourites to take the crown from Rishi Sunak after his humiliating defeat at the election

James Cleverly (pictured holding merchandise at conference today) blamed ‘constant infighting’ and ‘bickering’ for the Tories’ defeat and argued he had been a ‘team player’ in government

Ahead of several days of events, the interim chair of the Tories, Richard Fuller will tell the membership this afternoon that he is ‘profoundly sorry’ for the election loss.

The candidates will all have an opportunity to address the conference on Wednesday before parliamentarians pick the final two on October 10.

Members will choose between those two, with the result declared on November 2 – although there is speculation that could be brought forward so the new leader can respond to the Budget on October 30.

Mr Sunak will not stick around to see the conference develop – as he is expected to leave this evening. 

In a piece in the Sunday Telegraph Ms Badenoch said that ‘if necessary’ the UK should leave ‘international frameworks like the ECHR’.

She pledged to ‘end illegal migration by proper enforcement and inserting whatever deterrent is necessary into the system’.

But in her most striking position Ms Badenoch called for an ‘integration strategy’ and said that ‘we cannot be naïve and assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border, or that all cultures are equally valid.’

She added: ‘I am struck for example, by the number of recent immigrants to the UK who hate Israel. That sentiment has no place here.’

Ms Badenoch told the BBC: ‘It is not about labelling cultures. Culture includes a lot of things. I am not talking about cuisine, I am talking about customs.

‘I think that cultures where women are told that they should not work, I would knock on doors… and you would see somebody at the door who says I can’t speak to you I will get my husband.

‘I don’t think that is as equally valid as our culture.

‘The point I was making in the op-ed was about immigration, that immigration is something which we need to make sure we get right.’

She later added: ‘I am making an observation that we need to make sure we uphold our values in this country and we don’t allow it to turn into the place that millions of people around the world are running from.’

Pressed on Sky New why she had not explictly said Muslim immigrants, Ms Badenoch insisted: ‘Because it is not all Muslim immigrants. And this is what I don’t do, I am very careful when I speak.’

She said: ‘There are some, those who buy into Islamist ideology, political Islam, they do not like Israel and we need to be able to distinguish between the two. That is why I don’t just use a word that brings so many people into the group.’

Ms Badenoch also denied she deliberately sought out public spats, such as with actor Tennant over trans rights.

‘What is interesting about all those three people is there I was being nice, minding my own business, and then they came after me,’ she said.

The North West Essex MP added: ‘Why is it that people worry about someone who talks back? They don’t like it when women talk back, they don’t like it when politicians talk back.

‘I will talk back, I will not stand there and let people punch me. If you swing at me I will swing back but I don’t look for fights.’

Asked if her childhood years in Nigeria meant she was ‘too Nigerian’ for British politics, Ms Badenoch replied: ‘I doubt that. Nigerians tell me that I am too British. I am just Kemi, really. I am something that is just different and unique and that is why I stand out in this contest.’

On the BBC, Mr Jenrick said immigration would be his main issue – highlighting that unlike his rivals he is committed to leaving the ECHR.

And he repeated his vow of a cap ‘cast in iron’ on legal migration to the UK. 

‘I want to reclaim the mantle for the Conservative Party of low tax and pro growth, but I don’t agree that the age of mass migration has made our country richer,’ he said.

Mr Jenrick also said: ‘There are multiple failures that we need to acknowledge as a party, whilst obviously defending everything we’ve got right in government, and then we’ve got to listen to the public and set out serious answers to those challenges.

‘I’ve spent the last few months thinking very deeply about how we do that, and I don’t want to waste the next five years debating those things, that’s a recipe for more infighting and for further loss of public trust.

‘I want to use this leadership contest for us to settle those things and have a clear plan as to how we take our party and our country forward, and I have that, in particular on immigration.’

He said he would roll back UK participation in human rights conventions. ‘Unless we leave the jurisdiction of the European Court, we will never get to grips with this problem, and the British public want us, they expect us to do that,’ he said. 

The former immigration minister said: ‘What I want to do is to have Parliament set a legally binding cap on migration, so that we can look the public in the eye and be confident that we’re going to deliver on our promises this time.

‘I want to set that in the tens of thousands or lower.’

Meanwhile, in The Sun on Sunday, Mr Jenrick said the country needs ‘a tax system that rewards risk-takers’ and should ‘take advantage of our Brexit freedoms and change VAT thresholds’ for small businesses’.

In a pitch to ‘White Van Man’ he argued that ‘we should increase the thresholds to £100,000, as recommended by the Federation of Small Businesses, which would allow tens of thousands of businesses to have an additional untaxed turnover of £10,000’.

The Conservatives secured 121 seats at the general election in the summer, down hundreds of seats on Boris Johnson’s landslide in 2019.

Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Tugendhat said that the party were ‘rejected at the ballot box’ and people want ‘leadership that puts the country first.’

Mr Tugendhat has said that the conference offers the party ‘a chance to change course’.

In a piece for the Telegraph released on Saturday afternoon, he said that the gathering is ‘an opportunity to rebuild our party – not as a vehicle of opposition, but as a future government’.

Interim chair Mr Fuller will tell delegates in Birmingham that the parliamentary party ‘needs to learn and has to change’ when he makes his speech to conference on Sunday.

Mr Fuller is expected to say: ‘I am profoundly sorry to you, the members of the Conservative Party.

‘To our activists. To our current and former councillors, police and crime commissioners and mayors who found their strong local records of service were dominated by negative national headlines.

‘To Conservative voters and to the country at large for the consequence: a reckless, ideological socialist government with a huge majority based on a paltry share of the electorate.

‘I am deeply sorry.’

Tom Tugendhat (pictured arriving last night) is one of the other contenders 

Shadow home secretary James Cleverly arriving at conference with his wife last night 

Ms Badenoch was greeted by supporters as she arrived at conference last night

Mr Jenrick arriving for the Tory conference in Birmingham last night

As well as pledging that the parliamentary party ‘will change’, Mr Fuller is also expected to touch on the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK, who both took seats from the Tories at the general election.

‘The Liberal Democrats have already said they will cosy up to Labour whenever they can,’ he will say.

‘And what of Reform? Well, we gave them oxygen. We gave them space. We will take both back.’