Kemi Badenoch compared herself to Margaret Thatcher today as she tried to move on from a row over ‘excessive’ maternity pay.

The Tory leader hopeful said she was being ‘attacked’ and misinterpreted like the party’s doyenne had been over her ‘no such thing as society’ remark in the 1980s. 

The defiant stressed her determination to make things more ‘comfortable’ for would-be parents as she spoke to activists at party conference in Birmingham.

She also said that having a family was ‘probably the most meaningful thing that any of us are ever going to do’. 

Allies have complained of a ‘Stop Kemi’ campaign by supporters of rival Robert Jenrick, who seized on her loose comments yesterday about work benefits for mothers.

Answering questions at a Conservative Women’s Organisation fringe, Ms Badenoch was asked how she would prop up flagging UK birth rates.

‘I think that there are things that we have to do to make sure that we make life comfortable for those people who are… starting families,’ she replied – listing examples such as maternity pay, childcare provision and housing.

‘A lot of people have fewer children because they start having children later.

‘And so they just can’t have as many as perhaps they might have liked. Some people feel that they can’t afford children, I often think that too many people are worried about the money more than they need to be.

‘But we need to give people confidence. People are scared to have families, they’re worried about whether they can afford them, they’re worried about whether they will have birth trauma.’

Ms Badenoch said people ‘need to talk about families like… the amazing thing that they are, that having a family is probably the most meaningful thing that any of us are ever going to do’.

In other moves at the Tory conference today:

• Liz Truss has argued that the Tories would have done better at the election if she had still been in charge; 
• Mr Jenrick has denied shifting his views in a bid to win the leadership contest saying they had ‘evolved’ over time but his ‘values’ were the same;
• Tom Tugendhat has refused to say whether he was a spy before entering politics and spoken of having sword fights with his son;
• James Cleverly has been showing off his press-up prowess as he toured stands at conference. 

The furore erupted yesterday as Ms Badenoch was arguing during an interview that businesses face too much red tape and the tax burden is too high. 

Pressed on maternity pay, she seemed to suggest the benefit was ‘excessive’, and insisted that women had ‘more babies’ before it was introduced. 

As a backlash gathered pace, Ms Badenoch was forced to make a statement denying she supported reducing maternity pay. 

However, an ally of Mr Jenrick said: ‘It’s quite special to go Kemi-kazi on the first day of conference. Which group of potential Tory voters is she going to try to alienate next?’

Mr Jenrick also went openly on the attack at a Centre for Policy Studies event. ‘I don’t agree with Kemi on this one,’ he said. ‘I’m 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 amongst the lowest in the OECD. I think the Conservative Party should be firmly on the side of parents and working mums who are trying to get on.

‘I know how difficult that is, we should be supporting them and not making their lives more difficult.’

A source close to Ms Badenoch hit back by accusing her opponent of ‘scoring points’. 

‘We need to be better, we need our politics to be better. Kemi obviously supports maternity pay and was making a case for lower regulation – something she always aimed for as business secretary,’ they said. 

‘For other leadership campaigns to be seeking to use selective quotes from an interview to score political hits, shows they’re still wedded to the old politics and simply aren’t serious about getting back to government.’ 

Mr Jenrick told a fringe event this afternoon that the ‘British political system’ is ‘fundamentally broken’.

Asked about the change in his views in recent years, he told the PopConversation event at Conservative Party conference that ‘it’s fair to say that my views have evolved over time. I don’t think my values have changed incidentally.’

He said that for ‘much’ of his time in politics ‘I broadly thought our political system worked and I tried to work within it, and I prided myself on doing a good job’.

However he added that, ‘over time, particularly in the last few years, I did come to the view – a very firm view – that the British political system is not working, in fact it’s fundamentally broken.’

Reflecting on his time as communities secretary, housing minister, immigration minister, he said that he ‘came to the view that not only is the state that I had been part of that I had tried to uphold broken, but it’s actually contributing to our national decline.’

At a ConservativeHome event at conference last night, Ms Badenoch had the last slot for a short speech to activists. She jibed that ‘I think we all know I’m the one everyone has been waiting for’. 

And she told them that ‘someone who is going to cut through, someone who is going to stand up to (Labour) and someone to face down Farage’. 

Tom Tugendhat and Ms Badenoch will face questions from party members in Birmingham, while Liz Truss is expected at a fringe in-conversation event on the second day of the four-day gathering.

The Conservatives’ last conference in Birmingham in 2022 was dominated by Tory infighting over Ms Truss’s ill-fated mini budget.

The contest to replace Rishi Sunak as leader has taken centre stage at the party’s first conference since their general election defeat – but he has now departed the scene after a single speech apologising to members.

James Cleverly will also face questions on stage tomorrow, before all four contenders make speeches on Wednesday before the close of the conference.