‘Not all cultures equally valid’ when it comes to immigration, says Badenoch

Kemi Badenoch suggested that cultures where women had fewer rights than men were among those she deemed less valid. Photograph: Jeff Overs/PA

Kemi Badenoch has said “not all cultures are equally valid” when it comes to deciding who should be allowed into the UK, as she expressed her shock about “the number of recent immigrants to the UK who hate Israel”.

The Tory leadership contender, who says she speaks with “conviction and clarity”, called for a new integration strategy that will take into account the fact that not all immigrants will “automatically abandon [their] ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border” as “their feet may be in the UK, but their heads and hearts are still back in their country of origin”.