Kemi Badenoch ‘preoccupied with her children’ says Conservative MP
Conservative leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch is “preoccupied with her own children”, a Tory MP has said, telling ITV that “you can’t spend all your time with your family” while being Leader of the Opposition.
Sir Christopher Chope said that he was backing Ms Badenoch’s opponent in the contest, Robert Jenrick, whose children are “a bit older”.
Ms Badenoch and Mr Jenrick are vying for the support of Conservative members in their quest to succeed Rishi Sunak as Tory leader.
Demand
Sir Christopher, the MP for Christchurch told ITV Meridian’s The Last Word programme that “I myself am supporting Robert Jenrick because I think he’s brought more energy and commitment to the campaign, and being leader of the opposition is a really demanding job.
“And, much as I like Kemi, I think she’s preoccupied with her own children, quite understandably.
“But I think Robert’s children are a bit older, and I think that it’s important that whoever leads the opposition has got an immense amount of time and energy.”
He was challenged on his words by Helena Dollimore, the Labour MP for Hastings and Rye, and when asked by the presenter what his “concern” was, Sir Christopher explained: “I understand from talking to colleagues that Kemi spends a lot of time with her family, which I don’t resent at all.”
He added: “But the consequence of it is that you can’t spend all your time with your family as at the same time being Leader of the Opposition.”
Misrepresentation
Ms Dollimore said that she thought “there should be no barrier to women standing in public life”, before Sir Christopher claimed he was being “misrepresen(ted)”.
“You’re completely misrepresenting what I said,” the Conservative MP said. “What I’m talking about is the time, commitment involved in being Leader of Her Majesty’s, or His Majesty’s, Opposition.”
Tory members are voting in the coming days for their new party leader, who is due to be announced on 2 November.
Mr Jenrick and Ms Badenoch made it to the final two in the contest after James Cleverly failed to make it through the final round of the MP’s ballot last week.
On Wednesday, Ms Badenoch said during an online rally that she is running a “grassroots campaign” rather than a “media campaign”.
The North West Essex MP said: “I am working hard, I am running a grassroots campaign, not a TV campaign or a media campaign. I am getting out there and I am looking forward to meeting many of you on the campaign trail.”
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Chope? The bloke that filibustered the private members bill on upskirting (and any other bill he don’t like). Sounds about right for him.
Sir Christopher Chope? Rees-Mogg might be regularly characterized as the human manifestation of a 19th century ‘penny-farthing’ – though he always rather more calls to my mind Lord Snooty in the ‘Beano’ of my childhood.
But Chope is even more obsolescent: a living anachronism, an archetypical contemporary instance of an elderly upper middle class buffer squatting in the bowels of some upmarket London gentleman’s club circa 1909!
And, since they keep re-electing this utterly absurd bloke, I assume that plenty of the folk in Christchurch, Dorset, are cut from the same antique cloth.
Really? I couldn’t imagine anyone with as much bile as Badenough having children, let alone spending any time with them. (Ohhh wait! Mumsnet. My mistake, never mind. Mums can be bilious too) However, of course that particularly misogynistic criticism was made by Christopher Chode. And yet Robert Generic is given a free penis pass because his children are “a bit older” (and the unspoken thoughts of Chode “besides his wife should be at home raising them anyway”). Why would ANYONE want to spend time with Tories? EDIT. I just checked. Badenough’s youngest is 5, eldest is 12. Generick’s youngest is… Read more »