Kemi Badenoch has hit back at critics to insist she is not late or lazy - and declared Robert Jenrick himself finds the suggestions he will replace her as Tory leader 'distressing'. 

The Conservative Party leader, who spent her childhood living in Nigeria, has often been accused of laziness and not being on time - two stereotypes directed at west Africans in the past. 

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Mrs Badenoch revealed she finds the accusations frustrating, claiming she works from 5am until midnight most days, and rarely sees her family. 

'I know how hard I work. You can ask my husband and my children how much they see me,' she said. 

'My little one once told me she wanted a ''mummy nanny'',' Mrs Badenoch added. 'Because of course we've got a nanny who helps, and I said, ''What's a mummy nanny?'' She said, ''It's a mummy who picks you up from school and also does the nanny stuff as well.'''

The politician also addressed the plotters within her own party who would like to see her replaced by her former leadership rival Robert Jenrick - branding these people 'sore losers' who 'think this is a game'. 

She added that even Mr Jenrick himself is troubled by the suggestions, claiming: 'I think even Rob himself finds it distressing, but it's just something that we deal with.' 

This week, Mrs Badenoch spoke out about how town halls taking down English flags are fuelling racial division.

After a week that has seen the flag of St George removed from lamp posts, the Tory leader took aim at councils clashing with residents.

She said there is 'nothing racist about flying the flag of your nation' and 'nothing extreme' about feeling pride for the country.

And she warned that Labour councils trying to stop the campaign of patriotic flag-flying across the country are wrongly sending a message to ethnic minorities that the flag is not for them.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Mrs Badenoch attacked the local authorities for their 'double standards' after they allowed Palestinian banners to be displayed, as well as marking other countries' independence days and lighting up buildings for Black Lives Matter.

She also blasted Sir Keir Starmer for using the English flag as a 'football prop', claiming other Labour MPs are only posing with it because Downing Street has told them to.

In her exclusive article, Mrs Badenoch wrote: 'The flag of St George predates the Union flag. It is a symbol that has stood for centuries.

'It should not be controversial to say that we are proud of it. The denigration of anything British in the name of 'diversity' is not progressive. It is divisive. It must stop. It shouldn't be a revolutionary act to fly our own flags in our own country.'