Grieving families who lost loved ones to Covid have condemned Chemistry Badenoch to be praised Boris Johnson as a “big Prime Minister” and claims that Partygate scandal was “overblown”.

The newly elected Tory leader said the story was exaggerated as she argued that the government should not have fined people for “everyday activities” during the lockdown.

Lobby Akinnola, a spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice who lost his father during the pandemictold The Independent Ms Badenoch’s comment was “cruel and highlights how detached politicians can be from the people they represent”.

Mr Akinola said: “Badenoch’s resolute adherence to this perspective, that betrayal of the nation’s trust is no big deal, only reinforces the need for the nation’s security to be inscribed in politics, rather than depending on who happens to be in the seat of power when crisis strikes .

“Her praise of Johnson flies in the face of the evidence heard at the COVID inquiry and makes it even more important that the sitting government adopts the recommendations of the inquiry’s Module 1 report.”

Speaking of the BBC Sunday with Laura KuenssbergBadenoch had said: “I thought Boris Johnson was a fantastic Prime Minister, but there were some serious issues that were not being resolved and I think the public during that term thought we weren’t speaking for them or looking out for them. , we were in it for ourselves.

“Some of the things I think were perception issues, a lot of what happened around Partygate was not why I resigned.

“I thought it was excessive. We shouldn’t have created fixed fines, for example. It was us who disagreed with our principles.”

The comments sparked a furious backlash, with the Labor Party saying they were “adding insult to injury to families across the UK who followed the rules, missed the deaths of loved ones and family funerals, while her colleagues celebrated in Downing Street”.

Labor leader Ellie Reeves said: “The leader may have changed but on her first day in the job, Kemi Badenoch has proved that the Tories haven’t listened and they haven’t learned.”

And the Liberal Democrats said it was “clear that the Conservative Party has learned nothing from the years of sleaze and scandal under their watch”.

Lib Dem cabinet spokeswoman Sarah Olney said: “Kemi Badenoch’s comments are an insult to those who lost family members during the pandemic while Boris Johnson feasted and lied.

“On day one of the job, she has already shown that she is completely out of touch with the public.”

The row came a day after Badenoch was elected by Tory MPs to succeed Rishi Sunak, calling on the party to “be honest” about its mistakes in government and unite behind her.

And it came as The Independent revealed that Ms Badenoch had made one rape joke on her personal Facebook page in 2008.

The gaffes reveal why many considered choosing Ms Badenoch to lead the party a risk, with the former business secretary often generating uncomfortable headlines for the Conservatives.

She overtakes the Conservatives as the party recorded its first lead over Labor since the Partygate scandal broke in December 2021, with BMG Research finding the Tories on 29 per cent of the vote, compared to Sir Keir’s party on 28 per cent.

But a YouGov poll published ahead of the result showed four in 10 voters had an unfavorable view of Badenoch, including 29 per cent of Conservative voters, while Britons were more likely to think Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer would make a better prime minister.

Elsewhere in the interview, Badenoch pledged to reverse Labour’s decision to put VAT on private schools if she came to power, describing it as a “tax on aspiration” that would not raise money.

When it was suggested this would mean taking money from state schools, she said: “At the moment, certainly until Labor came in, we didn’t have this tax, so it’s not taking money from state schools.”

But Ms Badenoch was less willing to be drawn on whether she would reverse the rise in employers’ social security contributions if it meant taking money from the NHS.

She said: “I don’t accept the premise of that question. We (the Conservatives) didn’t do these things to increase funding for the NHS, so it’s not a binary proposition that if you don’t do this it means less money for the NHS.”