Row between Conservative leadership rivals came on the first morning of the party conference in Birmingham
Kemi Badenoch accused Robert Jenrick of misrepresenting her views as the pair clashed over immigration policy.
The row came after Ms Badenoch wrote a piece for The Telegraph in which she stressed the importance of culture in deciding who should be able to come to the UK.
But Mr Jenrick, who has committed to capping net migration in the tens of thousands or below, said he disagreed with her approach because “numbers also matter”.
Ms Badenoch hit back saying he had misrepresented her views because she also believes in cutting numbers.
The clash between the two frontrunners for the Tory leadership came on the first morning of the party conference in Birmingham.
In the article, Ms Badenoch said not all cultures are “equally valid” when it comes to immigration, and failing to recognise that is “naive”.
She said most politicians shy away from talking about immigration “in terms of culture as opposed to economics” as they fear it is “too controversial”, adding that many people who came here have “customs which may be at odds with British values”.
Ms Badenoch wrote: “We cannot be naive and assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border, or that all cultures are equally valid. They are not.”
On Sunday morning, Mr Jenrick was asked by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg whether he agreed that not all cultures were equally valid.
He declined to answer directly, but said: “Culture matters for integration,” before reiterating his call for a cp on immigration figures.
Criticising Ms Badenoch’s failure to commit to a limit, he said: “Just saying ‘I’ll have a plan in a few years’ time’ is a recipe for in-fighting and for losing the public’s trust.
“I have a plan. I want us to get on and start to implement that when we’re lucky enough to be in government again.”
Speaking on the same programme minutes later, Ms Badenoch said: “I was quite surprised that Rob actually misrepresented what I’ve been saying. Numbers do matter.
“Culture matters even more. Who comes into the country is absolutely critical, and leadership. You need to start from the top.”
‘We are not a dormitory’
Pressed on this, Ms Badenoch said: “We are not a dormitory. This is our home. People from all around the world just living here in their little bubbles and little groups is a recipe for disaster.
“I have seen it… I grew up in a country with 300 ethnic groups. This is a recipe for conflict, and the government needs to work hard on integration.”
Asked which groups she believed were not equally valid, Ms Badenoch said: “I know what you’re trying to do. Laura, you want me to say Muslims, but it isn’t all Muslims. So I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to play this game.
“I should be able to say that I have made an observation without you trying to portray it as me attacking a particular group…I talked about people ripping down posters. We saw who was doing it. We read about cases.”
Mr Jenrick said he did not believe that cutting immigration would lower economic growth.
He said: “I don’t agree that the age of mass migration has made our country richer.
“In the 25 years since Tony Blair became prime minister, we’ve had 5.9 million people coming into our country legally.
He added: “It was 59,000 in the 25 years prior to that, and this has not been a period of record growth, record productivity for rate. In fact, far from it.”
