Badenoch faces Tory backlash for claiming maternity pay is ‘excessive’

Richard Fuller, chairman of the Conservative Party, has urged the leadership contestants to “stop and think” and unite behind whoever wins the contest.

He told Times Radio: “Myself, the shadow chief whip and the head of the 1922 Committee (of backbench MPs) were very clear at the start, we wanted a campaign where there was no blue-on-blue (attacks).”

He added: “Each of them should stop and think about: they want to lead a party, would they want all of their colleagues who are unsuccessful – should they be elected – to go off into their own corners, or would they want them to come in behind them as leader?

“And I think when they do stop and think they’ll realise that they should be all on one team.”

On comments made by Kemi Badenoch about maternity leave provision, Mr Fuller said: “It’s important that the media are able to challenge our politicians, but equally, if you want to have coherent governance, you’ve got to give our politicians some space to do exactly what you said, to stop, think and then clarify.

“And that’s exactly what Kemi did.”