UK politics live: Rosie Duffield launches attack on Starmer as Kemi Badenoch defends Israel migrant claim

Kemi Badenoch has labelled the current statutory maternity pay as “excessive” and called for greater personal responsibility.

In an interview with Times Radio, she highlighted the variation in maternity pay based on employment but claimed that statutory maternity pay is fundamentally tied to taxation.

She added: “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.

“Businesses are closing. Businesses are not starting in the UK, because they say that the burden of regulation is too high.”

Put to her that she is saying maternity pay is “excessive”, Ms Badenoch said: “I think it’s gone too far, too far the other way, in terms of general business regulation, 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.”

She added: “We need to have more personal responsibility. There was a time when there wasn’t any maternity pay and people were having more babies.”

Robert Jenrick squirmed as he was challenged over his past support for Donald Trump, saying it is “natural” for a Conservative to lean towards Republican candidates.

The Tory leadership contest frontrunner was noticeably uncomfortable when the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg challenged him over his past support for the bombastic ex-US president.

He avoided using Trump’s name when repeatedly asked the question instead reverting to historic links between the Tories and Republicans in the US.

Our political correspondent Millie Cooke has the full story:

Rishi Sunak has urged Conservatives to rally behind whoever is elected as the new leader.

The former prime minister emphasised the importance of unity for the party’s future.

In an op-ed for the House magazine, his first significant statement since the general election, Mr Sunak described the upcoming annual conference as a “unique opportunity to debate and reflect” on the direction of the Conservative Party.

He added: “Just as importantly for many going, it will also be one to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

“We, the Conservative Party, are a family and, once this contest is over, we must come together to support our new leader.”

In a mesage to party members and MPs, past and present, he said: “This will be my last conference as leader, and I want to thank everyone in the party for their support. I will always be sorry that I could not deliver the results that everyone’s efforts deserved, but I will always be grateful for everyone’s hard work and commitment.”

When asked if she would welcome Rosie Duffield to the Conservative party, Tory leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch expressed admiration for the Labour critic but clarified that she is “not a Conservative”.

“Rosie Duffield is an amazing person. Whenever people ask me whoever’s the Labour person you like most, I always say Rosie,” Ms Badenoch told Times Radio. “She fights for her beliefs, she’s passionate, she’s principled. She’s not a Conservative.”

On the abuse Ms Duffield has received in recent weeks and since handing in her resignation, the shadow business secretary said: “I’ve offered moral support where I can. She’s had abuse from her own side, which is the worse thing.”

Boris Johnson has said that he believes a leak from a Chinese laboratory was the “likely” cause of the pandemic.

The former prime minister told the Daily Mail: “The awful thing about the whole Covid catastrophe is that it appears to have been entirely man-made, in all its aspects.

“It now looks overwhelmingly likely that the mutation was the result of some botched experiment in a Chinese lab.

“Some scientists were clearly splicing bits of virus together like the witches in Macbeth – eye of bat and toe of frog – and oops, the frisky little critter jumped out of the test tube and started replicating all over the world.”

Tom Tugendhat has rejected suggestions he would be just another privately educated “posh boy” in charge of the Conservative Party if he wins its leadership election.

The former security minister was pressed about his private education at St Paul’s School in London as he faced questions on the dawn of the Tory conference in Birmingham.

Mr Tugendhat urged the public to judge him on his record, rather than on his background, as he faced questions on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.

Asked whether the Tories need another “posh boy leader from a great public school”, Mr Tugendhat said: “I think the Conservative Party needs a leader who can lead, and you can judge me on the decisions my parents made 35 years ago or you can judge me on the decisions I have made for the last 35 years.

“I think that decisions I have made for the last 35 years demonstrate the character that you are looking at.

“I have chosen consistently to serve our country. I have put myself on the front line in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Following the appearance of the four Conservative leadership candidates on the morning media round, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader has expressed come concerns.

Daisy Cooper accused the contenders of trying to “defend the indefensible” on their pitches.

She added: “As James Cleverly said himself, people wanted the Conservatives out of government and this dire set of candidates has made it crystal clear why. “From the Conservative’s Partygate and PPE scandals to their disastrous mini budget, every one of the Conservative’s leadership candidates has spent years defending the indefensible.

“The British people have had enough of Conservative sleaze and scandal. They’ve had enough of seeing their health services and economy trashed. And that’s why so many former life-long Conservative voters backed the Liberal Democrats at the last election.

“People want urgent action to fix the health and care crisis not Conservative leadership candidates sniping from the sidelines. That’s why Liberal Democrats are calling for a Budget to Save the NHS and Care and working day in day out to be the constructive opposition the country needs and deserves.“