Tory leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch has said maternity pay has "gone too far" and the government needed to interfere less in peoples' lives. Speaking to Times Radio, Badenoch said statutory maternity pay, set up to support mothers for 39 weeks after having a baby, is a "function of tax", calling it "excessive".

Statutory maternity pay is “excessive” and the red tape around the benefit has “gone too far”, Kemi Badenoch has suggested.

Conservative leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch has been criticised for saying that statutory maternity pay is "excessive" in Britain.

We need to have more personal responsibility - there was a time when there wasn’t any maternity pay and people were having more babies." Badenoch later said that sh

Kemi Badenoch backtracks on claim maternity pay is ‘excessive’ - Tory leadership contender said government was doing ‘too much’ on statutory maternity pay, before quickly backtracking

There was a time when there wasn’t any maternity pay and people were having more babies’. Kemi Badenoch remains the clear favourite amongst Tory members to be next leader, according to the latest survey of members from the ConservativeHome website.

Conservative leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch has sparked fury after arguing that maternity pay in the UK is “excessive” and people should exercise “more personal responsibility”. In an interview with Times Radio today,