Parenting is a “two-person job”, Kemi Badenoch has said in an apparent swipe at a Tory backbencher who suggested she was too “preoccupied with her children” to be party leader.

In an interview with the Times, the Conservative leadership frontrunner said there needed to be more discussion of the role of fathers in parenting, adding the party had too often focused on single mothers in the past.

She said: “I remember early on as an MP, I did quite a lot of casework on absent fathers who the Child Support Agency was chasing. I think if people make children, they should be made to look after them. Family is important.

“And if you look at the prison population, the vast majority of the male prison population did not grow up with their fathers. If fathers look after their children better, they will be less likely to end up in prison. And those are the sorts of things that we need to talk about more.”

Undated handout file photo issued UK Parliament of Conservative former minister Sir Christopher Chope,
Sir Christopher Chope said that Kemi Badenoch was ‘preoccupied’, telling ITV ‘you can’t spend all your time with your family’ while leader of the opposition (Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/PA)

Her interview comes in the wake of a row over comments by veteran Tory Sir Christopher Chope, a supporter of Ms Badenoch’s rival Robert Jenrick, in which he said the mother-of-three was “preoccupied”, telling ITV “you can’t spend all your time with your family” while leader of the opposition.

Mr Jenrick has distanced himself from Sir Christopher’s comments, describing them as “definitely wrong”.

Meanwhile, the former immigration minister gave his own interview to the Sunday Telegraph in which he pledged to repeal the Climate Change Act and the Equality Act if he became prime minister.

Mr Jenrick has already said the UK should leave the European Convention on Human Rights but widened his attack to cover a range of Blair-era laws that he said prevented ministers from making the decisions they wanted to.

He said: “The next Conservative government must do better to deliver a genuinely conservative country. We must repeal and amend the Climate Change Act, Equality Act and Human Rights Act and restore decision-making to ministers accountable to Parliament.”