'Comparisons with Lady Thatcher are flattering but I am Kemi - I am not her'

Tory leadership favourite Kemi Badenoch says her braids are her equivalent of Margaret Thatcher's handbag as she tells David Maddox that she won't give up her hard-hitting style

Defiant Kemi Badenoch has vowed she will not give up her hardhitting style, saying: "This is what always happens to strong women. If you don’t play ball, then they will come after you.”

The favourite to become Tory leader next month was responding to claims by Tory critics that she had been “too abrasive” and also to Doctor Who actor David Tennant, who said he wished she would “shut up”.

In a candid interview with Independent TV, she said: “People know that I’m pretty tough. I’m not scared. I will always do the right thing, and I won’t be quiet when it is time to speak up.”

The former business secretary was clearly hurt by one jibe by a Tory MP saying she should spend more time being a mother, retorting: “All I want to do is spend time with my children.” But she also said she was “flattered” by comparisons with another outspoken female Tory leader, Margaret Thatcher – adding there were “similitaries” between them.

Noting that Thatcher was famous for her trademark handbag, she said her equivalent was her braids and distinctive roundrimmed spectacles. “The comparisons with Lady Thatcher are flattering, but I am Kemi, I am not her. We have similarities. She was a scientist. I was an engineer, for example.”

Thatcher, she said, focused on new policies to build a “framework for the future – that is what I want us to do”. In a wide-ranging interview, Ms Badenoch also:

• Discussed her belief Britain will have to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), despite not making it a policy like her opponent Robert Jenrick

• Suggested that two-tier policing was a problem in the UK

• Insisted that officers should be backed to the hilt over the Chris Kaba killing