‘Kemi Badenoch refuses to allow her child to have a smartphone and would ban them for under-16s, she said yesterday.

The Conservative leader revealed that she had given a ‘brick’ phone to her 11-year-old daughter who had had just started secondary school.

She told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday: ‘We need to give our children the very best start in life.

‘We didn’t have these things when we were young and even as adults we find it addictive. If adults are addicted to this, then what chance do children have?’

Ms Badenoch added that teachers had told her that children who have smartphones had lower levels of concentration than children who didn’t.

‘I am someone who strongly believes that young people should not be using smartphones, ideally up until the age of 16,’ she said.