A Tory MP said Kemi Badenoch couldn’t be party leader because she’s got 3 young children and was schooled into next week

Of all the reasons why Kemi Badenoch might not make make a good Conservative Party leader, this most definitely isn’t one of them.

It’s Conservative MP Christopher Chope, who’s been around so long he briefly served in the Cabinet under Margaret Thatcher and then John Mayor, suggesting that Badenoch shouldn’t get the top job because she’s ‘preoccupied’ with her three young children.

NEW: Conservative MP Sir Christopher Chope says Kemi Badenoch is “preoccupied with her children” and “you can’t spend all your time with your family at the same time as being leader of the opposition”.

He was speaking on this month’s @itvmeridian The Last Word. @itvnewspolitics pic.twitter.com/1qUF9Do7A6

— Kit Bradshaw (@kitbradshaw) October 17, 2024

Extraordinary scenes. And just in case the name (or the face) is familiar but you can’t quite place him …

In the meantime, enjoy precisely what people made of that, comprehensively schooling Chope somewhere into next week and beyond.

1.

Misogynistic attitude then whereby a woman shouldn’t do the job because she has children but a man can do the job who has children because one assumes the responsibility is to be dumped on the wife

— dave lawrence (@dave43law) October 17, 2024

2.

We all remember Christopher raising the same concerns about Boris Johnson’s 9 children. Right?.. RIGHT?! https://t.co/zGZp7MR1AO

— Will Sebag-Montefiore (@wsebag) October 17, 2024

3.

Robert Jenrick has 3 children, it’ll be impossible for him then Sir Christopher!

— Puja Teli (@ThePujaTeli) October 17, 2024

4.

Chope has long been guaranteed a starring role in the next Jurassic Park https://t.co/sCSmB1GziP

— Ben Kentish (@BenKentish) October 17, 2024

5.

Margaret Thatcher famously encountered this sort of nonsense at her selection meetings…in the late 1950s. https://t.co/YMbrTs2iCf

— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) October 17, 2024

6.

I’m shocked at Christopher Chope’s suggestion that women with children can’t be party leaders. I didn’t expect that from the man who blocked a bill to make upskirting illegal. https://t.co/nKYYkBCrs7

— Parody Keir Starmer (@Parody_PM) October 17, 2024

7.

BACK TO THE KITCHEN GIRLS https://t.co/wvvnpYh64u

— Joanna Hardy-Susskind (@Joanna__Hardy) October 17, 2024