Kemi Badenoch has insisted she was not referring to Muslims when she criticised a recent rise in the number of migrants coming to the UK who “hate Israel”.

When asked if she was referring to Muslim immigrants, the Tory leadership hopeful disagreed.

She said: “Because it is not all Muslim immigrants. And this is what I don’t do, I am very careful when I speak.”

The former Cabinet minister added: “But there are some, those who buy into Islamist ideology, political Islam, they do not like Israel and we need to be able to distinguish between the two. That is why I don’t just use a word that brings so many people into the group.”

Mrs Badenoch also defended the remarks in a newspaper comment piece in which she also said that not all cultures in the UK are “equally valid”.

She toured broadcast studios this morning ahead of the start of the Tory Party Conference in Birmingham.

In the newspaper piece, she wrote: “We cannot be naïve and assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border, or that all cultures are equally valid.

“They are not. I am struck for example, by the number of recent immigrants to the UK who hate Israel. That sentiment has no place here.”

On the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, the MP was asked: “Who do you mean and how do you know that?”

The presenter and Mrs Badenoch clashed repeatedly over which group “specifically” Mrs Badenoch had been referring to.

The top Tory said: “I know what you’re trying to do, Laura. You want me to say Muslims when 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.”

Former Home Secretary James Cleverly, ex Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick and former Minister for Security Tom Tugendhat are the other contenders aiming to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader in November.