Conservative leadership contender Kemi Badenoch said she would tone down her stance after some of her colleagues suggested she could be rude.
Badenock is widely seen as the favorite to replace Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader when the results of the party members’ vote are announced on Saturday.
Earlier this month, she Called ‘disrespectful’ by her rival Robert Jenrick Failure to set out our leadership policy more clearly.
When asked if she was seen as rude, Badenock agreed she might need to take a softer approach.
“I think it’s one of those things where I don’t think I’m being rude,” she told the BBC News podcast, attributing her behavior to “having a higher stress threshold.”
“I just feel like I’m saying things that I don’t mind hearing, so I treat people the same way I would treat myself, and you know, I’ve even had some of my advisors say, why did you say that?
“I have to remember that I have a higher tolerance for things than other people, and I think part of being a leader is being able to calibrate so that you can help manage other people.”
Asked if she would take a softer approach from now on, she said “Yeah, but that’s fine,” adding “I’m not perfect, you know, I never said I was. ”.
She continued: “We always want people who can conduct perfect interviews and make perfect policies look perfect.
“No one is like that. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses.”
Badenock, who rarely speaks to reporters compared with rival Jenrick, also said turnout among Conservative Party members for the new leader was low.
“I’ve done a lot more media coverage this week, especially because people didn’t vote as much as we expected,” she said.
Badenock said that when chatting with Conservative members at events, she would ask people if they had voted and be told, “Well, no, they haven’t. We’re going to wait until the last minute.”
But the former business secretary said she was not worried about Conservative members not voting for her and claimed to be “optimistic” about the outcome.
“I don’t know if I’m going to win,” she said.
“The bookmakers gave me the lead but I think it’s actually neck and neck.
“Robert can win. Anyone can win. Any one of us can win.”
Badenock was asked if perhaps party members didn’t like the choices they faced.
She responded: “Well, there’s nothing I can do about it. That’s politics.”
The full interview will be released at 6 a.m. Tuesday bbc sounds.
