Kemi Badenoch: Tories need to stop acting like Labour

On immigration, she said people “should not be made to feel guilty” for questioning the number of people coming into the country “if it is changing the place they know and love”.

Some of her leadership rivals, including Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat, have called for a cap on legal migration.

However, Ms Badenoch said this would not solve the problem.

“We had a cap of tens of thousands when David Cameron came in,” she said.

“We need to ask ourselves why that didn’t work, rather than just saying we’ll make another promise.”

She also said she did not agree with Tories who were calling for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which sets out the rights and freedoms people are entitled to in signatory countries.

Critics, including Mr Jenrick, have argued the treaty limits the UK’s ability to deport asylum seekers and deter illegal migration.

But Ms Badenoch said leaving the ECHR “would not be enough”, pointing out that other countries who are signatories are able to deport the vast majority of people they want to.

“We’ve got to look at the whole system,” she added.