Zoomchat with Kemi Badenoch MP - Monday 28th October, 10am

[RhiannonEMumsnet]

Hi all,

We’re pleased to announce a Mumsnet Asks Zoomchat with Tory Leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch MP on Monday 28th October at 10am. Please post your questions below, and Justine will put a selection to Kemi via Zoom.

You’ll be able to watch live by registering here but we’ll also be recording so you can catch up if you can’t make it. We won’t be able to take questions during the chat so please do make sure you post on the thread if there’s something you’d like to ask. We’ll be closing the thread to questions on Sunday morning.

If you join the Zoomchat, your camera will be turned off by default. Your screen name might be visible, so consider whether you’re happy to use your real name or want to use your MN posting name - or something else entirely.

Please stick to the usual guidelines - one question per user, keep it civil, and if one topic is dominating, please don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point (we'll be deleting questions that are repeated multiple times). We'll be limited for time so do keep questions as short as possible so that we’re able to ask more of them - as always, we'll try to make sure we cover the topics that we know are important to Mumsnet users.

Thanks,
MNHQ.

Hi Kemi
The main two problems the Tories have are trust (ie no one believes a word they say) and competence (particularly if as you say the civil service "blocks" conservatives). How do you plan to address these two issues?

I super enjoyed listening to your interview (?Political Thinking) with Nick Robinson (just broadcast, BBC R4). I liked very much your strategy of declaring your values & letting a process arise from that starting point that would eventualy lead to specific party policies. I respect that you're a careful thinker.

But I can't agree with your voting record (see example screenshot). Are you really as open-minded about destination as you sounded in the Robinson interview? I fully expect you to keep voting against environmental protections, for instance.

What do you think about the growing inequality of income and opportunities in Britain? And what would you do to address it?

Are you aware that the new public toilet designs which your department oversaw create a greater threat to vulnerable people, especially the medically vulnerable, women and girls?

There are no floor-to-door gaps described or shown in any of the designs, and it stipulates the enclosed unisex design could be used for single sex cubicles.

The enclosed private cubicles, designed to be easily openable from the outside, have been shown to provide the ideal environment for assaults to take place, with no witnesses.

It also means that anyone who has suffered a medical emergency and collapsed inside the cubicle can no longer be seen from the outside and be helped. This particularly affects people with diabetes, epilepsy, heart conditions (including seizures from drug spikings), which are all conditions that were not included in your equality assessments or analysis, even though your public consultations did receive evidence on this.

Please make sure these life-saving, safeguarding door gaps get put back into the single sex designs in Document T. And then, get the ‘gaps’ back into secondary school toilet designs that now stipulate full enclosure.

Hi Kemi

Given the destruction of the the tories at the last election, how do you plan to re-position the conservative party as credible? In particular to younger voters?

How would you have done things differently if you were in power instead of Truss, Johnson etc?

Follow up --- what do you think about the new workers rights reforms, as you are party member who reportedly had "normal" jobs in the past do you welcome these?

Hi Kemi

What's it like being in Opposition?

Dear Kemi,

What do you think is the single most important change you can make to the Conservative Party to allow it to regain office? (Please resist calls to pull out of the ECHR: just repeal the HRA.)

Given how awful and dishonest the present government is, and given the likelihood that it will be thrown out at the next election, what do you expect to have to do very early on if you are the next Tory PM?

If you do become the first black, female, Yorùbá-speaking PM, that will be wonderful. Go Kemi 👍.

One of the reasons many voters switched to Labour at the last election is the state of crucial public services after 14 years of Conservative government, with the long-term impact of austerity visible in the NHS, schools, the criminal justice system, local authorities going bankrupt, and widespread reliance on food banks.
How would you convince voters that a future Conservative government would govern differently, ensuring adequate public funding for essential services, and that as Prime Minister, you would not oversee further deterioration in these by continuing your predecessors’ policies?

Hi Kemi, I've been reading your chapter about the "bureaucratic class" and finding it interesting.

However in your discussion about energy you talk about shale and fracking being blocked by the bureaucratic class, and this being detrimental for our county.

There isn't any mention of wind energy. The UK is a windy country. We could generate lots of energy if on and offshore wind farms are embraced, and have greater energy security. Wind farms have been blocked by previous conservative governments, largely it seems because some people don't like the appearance of them or have an inherent dislike of renewables. This is very short sighted.

This led me to wonder if you will challenge beliefs held by typical conservative voters, as well as those more typically held by left leaning voters.

Hi Kemi, How do you think we, as a society, can address the appalling levels of male violence against women? We see men committing the most awful crimes such as selling images of child abuse and yet receiving non-custodial sentences, while a woman who made a vile comment on social media received a prison sentence of 31 months (yes her comment was horrible but did it warrant a fast-track prison term?). Women have lost faith in the justice system. Thanks.

The Conservative Party will need to win back voters who, in the last election, switched their votes to the Lib Dems and to Reform. How do you plan on bridging such a political gulf?

Hi Kemi. I think it's really important for us to know your true views on maternity pay. I know you said you were mis-represented but this is a direct quote of what you said: “Maternity pay varies, depending on who you work for. But statutory maternity pay is a function of tax, 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."

You later said "Contrary to what some have said, I clearly said the burden of regulation on businesses had gone too far… of course I believe in maternity pay!" and "Of course maternity pay isn’t excessive…no mother of 3 kids thinks that."

So can you clarify exactly what you meant when you made the first comment? You have said that your leadership campaign is about values rather than specific policies - and this is a pretty important value I'd like to understand. Do you think the state has a role in helping women who have children so that they can remain in the workplace? Or is it their "personal responsibility"? Should the state help with childcare? What about paternity leave? Do you back Mumsnet's campaign to force companies to publish their parental leave policies so that women of child-rearing age don't have to ask about it at interview and risk being blocked for the job if they do?

Hi Kemi

Thank you for doing this. I'm not a traditional conservative voter but feel completely let down by left-leaning politics.

I believe the political class in all spheres has either lost its collective mind over the odd concept that innate "gender identity" self declared by a person is more important than biological sex, or the rest of its members (the ones less enamoured of the idea) are happy to dismiss it as a storm in a teacup which isn't an important political battleground and just part of a "culture war" waged by two sides. You have already taken steps to challenge the stranglehold that this destructive ideology has on public services. What more do you think could and should be done?

How, specifically, will you stop males from abusing females and children, and ensure those that have already done so are punished and kept away from females and children?

Hi Kemi, thanks for making the time to do this!

I haven't seen anything here about the war in Ukraine. There's significant speculation that if Donald Trump wins the US presidential election next month, he may withdraw from NATO or at the very least minimise US military aid to Ukraine. Previous UK Conservative governments have said they would continue to support Ukraine no matter how long the war goes on. Do you agree? What would you suggest that the UK do for Ukraine, both as the situation stands now and if the USA significantly reduced their support? How do you see the UK's role in a future NATO?

Hi Kemi

I would like to ask a question about the conflict between women’s sex based rights and the concept of gender identity but in the context of Parliamentary procedure in terms of what has happened and what was promised (under a Tory Government) would happen next.

Following 2 petitions on the Parliament web site there was a Westminster Hall debate https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CDP-2023-0120/CDP-2023-0120.pdf on whether the EA should be amended to clarify that the word sex was strictly about biology, or whether it should remain as it is. (Where the GRA interacts with the EA so that on occasions a TW is considered a “legal woman”.)

The debate did not reach a conclusion but there was a promise that more work would be done on resolving the conflict.

What work if any was done on this while you were still in post, and what obligation or parliamentary custom is there that the Labour Government should continue this work?

At the moment the media make if sound like Labour is committed to the concept that not just someone with a GRC but just having a gender identity should be seen as having “changed sex”.

If this is the case what role can the Tories take in making sure this isn’t steam rolled through particularly when Labour only put forward 2 candidates to be Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee who both believe you can “change sex”. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/10/women-equalities-committee-chair-kate-osborne-sarah-owen/

You yourself had previously made very forthright contributions to this Committee. Whether as Leader of the Opposition or just a member of the Opposition Party will you continue to bring logic and reality to this debate and possible EA amendments?

Thanks

I'd like to ask a similar question. In your previous attempt to become Tory party leader, you said something about schools spending money on superfluous support staff - can you clarify what you meant by this, as the impression given at the time was you were talking about teaching assistants? Without them, SEND kids in mainstream would struggle more than they already do, and there'd be even greater demand for the already difficult to access and significantly more expensive specialist provision. How can that not be a false economy?

I’m not sure if it’s too late to add a question

Hi Kemi, thanks for your time

Given the failing of current policy and increase in fatalities and crossings in the channel do you think you can resolve the issue?

A friend of mine lost his home because of coastal erosion which has happened a lot faster than anticipated because of climate change fuelling rising sea levels. With this and worsening storms and flooding, what would you do to keep us all safe from the impacts of climate change?

Under your leadership, would the Conservative party still be committing to "Levelling Up" areas and social groups to reduce imbalance across the country? If so, which areas/social groups would you be initially focusing on, and how would you address the imbalance?

Many women welcomed your stance on sex-based rights. Can I ask why the Conservative government did not use the last few years of its time in office to make good the contested parts of the Equality Act 2010?

Really really disappointed you didn’t ask my question @RhiannonEMumsnet . This is about the practicalities of saving lives and preventing assaults.

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for all your questions - you can watch the recording of Justine's interview with Kemi here.

Thanks,
MNHQ