an article for the Sunday Telegraph, external to say the country expected immigrants to share the UK’s values.
“We can not be naïve and assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border, or that all cultures are equally valid. They are not,” she wrote.
The two frontrunners in the leadership campaign race have disagreed over their approaches to tackling immigration, which many Tories believe caused millions of voters to desert the party for Reform UK in July’s general election.
In his interview with Laura Kuenssberg, Jenrick took issue with Badenoch’s emphasis on culture.
Stressing his commitment to capping net migration in the tens of thousands, he said: “Numbers also matter.
“Just saying ‘I’ll have a plan in a few years’ time’ is a recipe for in-fighting and for losing the public’s trust. I have a plan,” he added.
Badenoch accused him of misrepresenting her position, saying numbers did matter but “culture matters even more. Who comes into the country is absolutely critical.”
Asked which cultures were “less valid”, she said it was “not about labelling cultures”.
“I think that cultures where women are told that they should not work, I would knock on doors… and you would see somebody at the door who says ‘I can’t speak to you, I will get my husband’. I don’t think that is as equally valid as our culture.”
Badenoch, who was born in London but spent her childhood in Nigeria and the US before returning to the UK, added she did not want “this country to turn into one I was running away from”.
