Kemi Badenoch accused of hiding as she swerves TV appearance with Laura Kuenssberg alongside rival Robert Jenrick

TORY leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch has been accused of hiding after swerving a TV appearance with her rival.

She was asked to appear with Robert Jenrick today on BBC1’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show.

But the former business secretary passed on the offer.

A Tory source said: “Whoever becomes leader will need to be up for scrutiny and media ­interviews — that’s how the ­public get to know you.

“Jenrick has his critics, but where’s Kemi? Feels like she’s hiding and has bottled it.”

But a Badenoch campaign source hit back: “Kemi is taking her message directly to Tory members. She was in Sussex on Friday and Oxfordshire on Saturday. This leadership contest is about who has the best ideas to renew Conservatism and win back public trust. It’s not about who does the most interviews.”

The pair made the final two among MPs this week when James Cleverly was ousted.

They will fight to be crowned leader on November 2 in a ballot of around 150,000 party members.

Mr Jenrick’s big pitch has been pushing to leave the European Convention on Human Rights — blamed for stopping deportations of illegal migrants.

Ms Badenoch swiped at her rival in the Sunday Telegraph: “My pitch to be leader is about rewiring the entire state, not just single policies such as ­leaving the ECHR.”

Polling guru Lord Robert Hayward said everything was to play for in the contest and members had been turning up to hustings in “huge numbers”.