Kemi Badenoch slammed by leadership rivals for saying maternity pay is 'excessive' at Tory conference
29 September 2024, 16:26 | Updated: 29 September 2024, 16:31
Conservative leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch has been criticised for saying that statutory maternity pay is "excessive" in Britain.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Ms Badenoch told Times Radio on Sunday that the Government was doing "too much" in regards to maternity pay.
The shadow communities minister said from the Tories' autumn conference in Birmingham: "Tax comes from people who are working, we're taking from one group of people and giving to another.
"This, in my view, is excessive."
Read More: Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick claims terror suspects 'waltz in on small boats'
She added: "We need to allow businesses, especially small businesses, to make more of their own decisions.
"The exact amount of maternity pay, in my view, is neither here nor there. We need to make sure that we are creating an environment where people can work and people can have more freedom to make their individual decisions."
Ms Badenoch's leadership rivals Tom Tugenhadt and Robert Jenrick have seized upon the quotes to criticise her.
Robert Jenrick said the Conservative Party should be "firmly on the side of parents and working mums", when asked about his Tory leadership rival Kemi Badenoch's criticism of statutory maternity pay levels.
Speaking at a fringe event at Tory conference, Mr Jenrick said: "I don't agree with Kemi on this one. I am a father of three young daughters. I want to see them get the support that they need when they enter the workplace.
"Our maternity pay is among the lowest in the OECD.
"I think the Conservative Party should be firmly in the side of parents and working mums who are trying to get on."
He added there were "plenty of other ways that we can help small businesses to prosper other than targeting maternity pay".
Robert Jenrick said the UK has a "fair system of maternity pay" when it was put to him that the country has one of the lowest rates in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).
Asked for his views on maternity pay on Times Radio, he said: "Well, we have a fair system of maternity pay.
"Of course, there are always ways in which we could seek to improve, but it's a balance, isn't it? Because we've got to ensure that working mums and families have the support they need, but also that we can have the right labour laws in this country so that we maintain one of our great strengths as a country, which is a flexible labour market, which has enabled us to have record levels of employment, even in bad times."
Tom Tugendhat said it is "absolutely not my place to tell women how to live" when asked if women should be having more children and spending more time bringing them up.
Speaking to Times Radio, he said: "It's absolutely not my place to tell women how to live. This is completely, you know, it's (a) completely free country. What I want to see is, I want to see more women's voices on the conservative benches. And frankly, the fact that we've gone down in the number of women MPs is a real worry."
First introduced in 1987, statutory maternity pay is available only to women who are employed and earning an average of at least £123 per week.
It provides 90% of a person's salary for six weeks, and then whichever is lower of 90% of their salary or £184.03 per week for the next 33 weeks, and the payment is liable for income tax and national insurance.
Joeli Brearley, Founder of Pregnant then Screwed, said: "What she's saying is incredibly dangerous, and it doesn't benefit anybody: it doesn't benefit businesses, it certainly doesn't benefit families - and the Conservatives are meant to be the party for family, and it absolutely doesn't benefit society.
"So I'm not sure that she's got this right and I'm really disappointed to hear such things said by any candidate for the Conservative Party".
