The four remaining Tory leadership candidates (Image: Getty)
Kemi Badenoch told James Cleverly to “dream on” after he claimed to be the “best” candidate to be the next Tory leader.
Ms Badenoch, who has faced fury over her comments on maternity pay, said the need someone who can “face down Farage”.
The party’s chairman, Richard Fuller, has this morning denied claims the leadership race is beginning to expose deep divisions within the party.
Shadow Home Secretary Mr Cleverly, at a reception on Sunday, declared: “I would be the best leader of the party”, pointing to his experience in the Foreign Office and Home Office.
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Kemi Badenoch is expected to fight back on Monday after a difficult day on Sunday (Image: Getty)
James Cleverly says he will be the ‘best’ person to lead the Conservatives (Image: Getty)
But Mrs Badenoch, the shadow housing secretary, began her speech by saying: “Nice speeches, boys, but I think you all know I’m the one everyone’s been waiting for.
“We are going to get , we’re going to get Rachel Reeves and we’re going to get and to do that we need someone who’s going to cut through, somebody who is going to stand up to them and also face down Farage.
“Somebody who will resonate with the public. James thinks he’s the best – dream on, James. If you want change, vote for renewal, vote for Kemi.”
Mrs Badenoch’s campaign to replace has been rocked by her controversial comments on maternity pay being “excessive”.
She told Times Radio: “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.”
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.”
One source working in one of the leadership teams said they could not believe Ms Badenoch had made the comments and said she was running a “Kemikaze” campaign.
But Mrs Badenoch accused her rivals of instigating a “pile on” against her.
A source in her leadership camp told the Express: “Infighting and internal conflicts helped take our party to an historic defeat. 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.
“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.”
Richard Fuller, chairman of the Conservative Party, said clarifying a position is a “sign of maturity”, when asked about the maternity pay row.
Asked if the Tory leadership contest was exposing deep political divisions within the party, with reference to Ms Badenoch, Mr Fuller told Breakfast: “I don’t agree with that, if I may say.
“But I think obviously, when there’s policy decisions to be made or policy positions to be made, then there is time to have a discussion about that, but on this particular instance, Ms Badenoch was clear subsequently, that she wasn’t talking about the issue of maternity pay.
“But I don’t think showing that we’re a united party means that there should be a commonality of response on every policy area.”
He added: “We all say things at certain times in the pressure of the moment where perhaps we need to clarify later.
“I think it’s a sign of maturity for each of the candidates that they’re able to set out their store about what they want to see as the future of the party and, from time to time, that will require clarification. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
“We don’t want a whole generation of glib politicians who are just fantastic in the moment, but don’t think through long term what their answers to questions should be.”