KEMI Badenoch lashed out at the BBC as she attempted to deflect criticism after suggesting that maternity pay is “excessive”.
The Tory leadership hopeful also claimed the Labour Party “have the BBC” on their side as she railed against the party’s “opponents”.
Her claims come despite the BBC leadership's links with the Conservative Party, including director-general Tim Davie, who stood twice as a Tory council candidate and board member Robbie Gibb, who was once described as an “active agent of the Conservative Party” at the corporation.
Speaking to GB News on Monday during the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, which comes as the party elects its next leader following a historic defeat at the July election, Badenoch also said the Tories were “the good guys” when compared with Labour.
Setting out her initial pitch for the leadership, Badenoch (below) suggested the Tories were isolated against the establishment, saying: “We are a party with a great tradition.
“Labour have the unions, they have the BBC, they have charities. All we have is each other.”
She later added: “It’s very important that we make sure that we tell our own stories. As Conservatives, we’ve allowed too many people to tell us who we are, we’ve allowed too many people to portray us as the bad guys. Labour are in, everybody can see that they’re the bad guys, we’re the good guys.”
Asked about her comments where she suggested that maternity pay in Britain – among the lowest in the developed world – was “excessive”, Badenoch compared her statement to Margaret Thatcher’s famous remark: “There is no such thing as society.”
Badenoch added: “When you are a leader, when you are a Conservative, when you are making the argument for conservative principles, your opponents are going to try and turn it into something else.
“We need to decide whose going to be leader of the party – not the left, not The Guardian, not the BBC. Just Conservatives.”
Her maternity pay comments were seized on by her opponents Robert Jenrick and Tom Tudgendhat but rival James Cleverly, who is pitching himself as a unifier, refused to be drawn into the row.
