Maternity pay row like furore over Thatcher's 'society' soundbite

KEMI Badenoch has compared herself to Margaret Thatcher following a backlash after she suggested maternity pay was "excessive".

- Sam Lister

The Tory leadership contender insists that she believes paying new mothers is "quite important" after rivals attacked her comments.

But she said the row was similar to the furore that hit Britain's first woman prime minister when she claimed "there is no such thing as society".

Quizzed yesterday on the main stage at the party's Birmingham conference, she said: "Maternity pay is quite important. And this was actually a long discussion we were having about the role of the state in deciding what businesses should do.

"But let's take a step back. Who remembers the phrase, There is no such thing as society'? "Everybody remembers. Mrs Thatcher gave an interview to Women's Own magazine where she was asked the question. She said, "There's no such thing as society.'

"She was talking about people wanting government handouts, but there are only individual people and families, and that very good explanation got cut down into a soundbite that was used to attack her."

Ms Badenoch added: "When you are making the argument for Conservative principles, your opponents are going to try to turn it into something else.

"We need to decide who's going to be leader of the party, not the left, not the Guardian, not the BBC just Conservatives."

Asked about having said that maternity pay was "excessive", she said: "I was answering a different question."

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