Badenoch denies the comparison

Kemi Badenoch dismissed the row over the "British Iron Dome" label attached to her party's air defence plan as a "semantic argument", saying the new system would protect Britain from growing threats. On BBC Radio 4's Today programme, she said the Conservatives were not building the Iron Dome and that Britannia Shield would not be comparable with Israel's, which she said is built mainly against short-range attacks. Newspapers, she said, had supplied the Iron Dome description; she herself had called the system the Britannia Shield.

The denial came despite the phrase appearing in her own press release and in an article published under her name.

Where the phrase actually appeared

Before the denial, the phrase had surfaced in two places: Badenoch's press release and an article written under her name for the Sun.

• •The press release described the plan as "in essence a British Iron Dome".
• •The Sun article said Britannia Shield was "Modelled on Israel's 'Iron Dome'".
• •It committed the party to £10bn over 10 years for the radar, missiles and technology needed to detect these threats.
• •The Sun ran the piece on its front page, illustrated with an image of Israel's Iron Dome.

What the shield would do - and what a replica would cost

Badenoch said the money would deliver the system: "The money that we are spending, £1bn a year over 10 years, should be able to deliver this". She said Britain was designing a system specific to its own threats: "We are doing what other European countries are doing: Greece, Benelux countries – Belgium and the Netherlands – and Germany".

On Times Radio, she said missile defence systems were needed now, that the Iron Dome was one type among them, and that the party had not said it was replicating Israel's. Asked whether the system should intercept any attack over the whole country, Badenoch said it should, with a condition attached:

• •"It should, but it needs to protect critical national infrastructure".
• •That infrastructure, she said, keeps the entire country safe.

Richard Barrons, a former army general, put a different figure on a system built to Israel's scale. He told Times Radio that "the cost of a system similar to Israel's would be upwards of £100bn".

Cartlidge defends the label; Labour attacks the pledge

James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, told journalists the phrase "iron dome" had come to be used "a bit like the word 'hoover'" to refer generically to missile defence systems, and said the Conservative plan clearly is one. Israel's system, he said, is short-range and built for very near threats: "It's to do with very near threats from the likes of Hezbollah". He added: "It was actually originally designed for artillery and very unsophisticated weaponry".

Britannia Shield, he argued, is not an exact copy but a bespoke UK system, and the familiar label helps the media and public grasp roughly what is proposed: "if you say 'iron dome' they at least know roughly what you're talking about".

Cartlidge is due to tell the Conservative conference that the UK needs to be ready to defend itself from potential aerial attacks, with fresh investment in advanced radar and interceptor missiles.

A Labour source said it was no surprise Badenoch wanted to forget how the Tories had hollowed out the armed forces, dismissing the pledge as a half-baked promise resting on fantasy numbers that she hopes will be forgotten hours after it was made. The Tories, the source said, must never again be given responsibility for keeping Britain safe.

Badenoch is scheduled to close the Conservative conference with her own speech on Wednesday.