UK politics live: Kemi Badenoch grilled after Tory conference rivals jump on ‘excessive’ maternity pay claim

Rain Newton Smith, director-general of the CBI, has told Times Radio that businesses “want to see measures to support working parents”.

Asked whether maternity pay is a concern for small businesses in light of Kemi Badenoch’s comments on Times Radio yesterday morning, Newton-Smith said: “It hasn’t been raised with me. In fact, I would say what our members say is what they want to see is measures to support working parents.

“And in fact, they’re concerned about the high cost of childcare, childcare provision, and what they want to see is high quality childcare provision to really help working parents.

“We know in the UK, we have challenges in terms of the number of people who are participating in the workforce.

“So in fact, one of the things that we have done at the CBI is successfully campaigned for more support for childcare and for ensuring that working parents and in particular, women who often bear a lot of the caring responsibilities have the right support to remain in work, both through maternity, but as they’re returning to work and as their children are young.”

Tory leadership frontrunner has called for the Star of David to be displayed at every point of entry to the UK to show “we stand with Israel”.

The former immigration minister told a Conservative Friends of Israel event that he wanted to Britain to become the “most welcoming country in the world for Israelis and the Jewish community”.

Mr Jenrick claimed that he had pushed for Israelis travelling to the UK to use e-gates during his time as cabinet minister and promised that if he became prime minister he would move the British embassy, which is currently in Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem.

He added: “If the Foreign Office or the civil servants don’t want to do it, I will build it myself.”

His remarks come after he was spotted various times wearing a hoodie that said “Hamas are terrorists” around London.

The Tory leadership contest has been criticised for being too long as it is due to last until 2 November.

But party chairman Richard Fuller has defended the timeline, claiming that the decision was taken “some weeks ago”.

He told Sky News: “But the 1922 committee, the MPs group, were very clear - they wanted it to be longer. They wanted more exposure for the people, the four candidates, over a more extended period of time.

“And we ended up with this time frame. And that’s fine. It’s an exciting conference. People are quite excited to listen and engage with all four candidates.

“So it has its pluses and minuses.”

The controversial MP for Canterbury has finally realised what the rest of us already knew – it’s just a shame that it took her so long, writes Ryan Coogan:

Former defence secretary Grant Shapps has also been asked about the bruising July general election, which cost him his seat.

The former Tory MP claimed voters punished the party for their lack of unity.

He told Times Radio: “People were saying, look, I’m not voting for them their policies, I’m voting for them because you guys just haven’t got your act together.

“Or, as I said in my concession speech - door after door, people said you guys can’t agree with each other and we can’t agree to vote for you.”

Mr Shapps added: “It was obviously incredibly frustrating, but also completely true. And the first rule of politics in my view, of public life, is if you want to represent people, be competent, that is the number one rule.

“And if the government itself or the party isn’t agreeing with each other, then it can’t do that.”

Richard Fuller, chairman of the Conservative Party, has responded to comments from Grant Shapps, who said the party need to learn from the success of the Lib Dems at the general election.

He told Sky News that it is “always important to learn from other political parties” adding that the Lib Dems “did a particularly good review after their election losses in 2019 and had a good result in the most recent election”.

Mr Fuller added: “That’s one of the sources that we’ll definitely be looking at, yes.”

But when asked about the reason for the bruising election loss, he said that it “comes down to the behaviour of the parliamentary party”.

Former Tory MP Grant Shapps has launched ‘Conservatives Together’ in a move to rebuild the party following its “catastrophic defeat”.

He told Times Radio: “Kind of being out of those roles is a little bit demob happy - you get on with your life, you don’t have to get up every single day and follow a particular structure.

“But on the other hand, the Conservative Party just went up to a catastrophic defeat. I’m a Conservative through and through.

“I just think to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, you’ve got to get your act together quickly, got to learn your lessons. And that’s why I’m at this conference launching Conservatives Together.”

The Labour party chair has urged the Electoral Commission to carry out a “formal investigation” into a contribution to Robert Jenrick’s Tory leadership campaign.

The former immigration minister was given a £75,000 donation from a company which had reportedly received money from a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

But Mr Jenrick said The Spott Fitness is “as I understand it, a fitness company that operates in the UK”, and the donation was “perfectly legal and valid”.

Ellie Reeves wrote in her letter to the Electoral Commission that the Tory candidate still “has serious questions to answer”.

She added: “It is vital that we all work to preserve the integrity of our politics and I welcome your cooperation in this matter.”

Richard Fuller, chairman of the Conservatives has responded to criticism of the party leadership candidates by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and said the Tories do not have to move to the right to regain vote share from Reform.

Mr Fuller, the MP for North East Bedfordshire, told Times Radio: “Nigel Farage is an MP, so if he’s like other MPs and he spent his time not trying to make big national prognostications, he’d be looking after local constituency issues, what his constituents care about, and for me, it’s issues with flooding, it’s about special education needs, that’s what an MP ought to be focused on.

“But for the Conservative Party more generally, with people who have thought about or have voted Reform in the recent elections, we need to make sure that we are strong on our small ‘c’ conservative principles doesn’t mean moving to the right, just being clear on what your principles are.

“When we’ve had to deal with things such as the Covid-19 response, which meant quite a large amount of extra public money, taxpayers money.

“The Conservative response at that moment was to say, ‘well, we’re not going to pass it on to future generations, we’re going to have to increase taxes’ but that makes it more difficult.”

Today is the second day of the Conservative Party conference and leadership candidates are expected to make appearances as they continue their fight to become the new leader of the opposition.

Here’s what to expect:

• 9.30am: Shadow chancellor Jeremy Hunt to appear ‘in conversation’ on the main stage.
• 12.30pm: Former prime minister Liz Truss will make an appearance at an ‘in conversation’ event.
• 2pm: Leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat will answer questions on the main stage for around an hour.
• 3pm: Leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch will answer questions on the main stage for around an hour.