Young people are becoming puritanical about sexual harassment and what constitutes a sexual advance, according to Kemi Badenoch, the new Conservative vice-chair in charge of candidate selection.

The MP, who was elected last year, cited those who think Friends, the 1990s US television series, is transphobic and homophobic as examples of such attitudes, saying “something has gone wrong somewhere”.

Speaking to the House magazine, the 37-year-old said she thought the younger generation’s view of appropriate sexual behaviour was conservative rather than liberal.

“For instance when I look at a lot of the stuff that you see on social media about how – I think it’s a generational thing as well – younger people look at appropriate behaviours and what is a sexual advance, what is sexual harassment and so on. To me, it’s actually becoming a lot more puritanical than anything I ever saw in my 20s or in my teens,” she said.

“In the papers, they were talking about how Friends is now sort of really homophobic, transphobic and so on. That, for me, is a very, very – it’s actually a puritanical position, which I think of as conservative. So, you can’t really put your finger on what is what these days.

“Friends was the biggest television series of all time. Everybody loved it, it was syndicated all around the world. The idea that in a few years people are talking about it as if it’s this horrific series, for me that just doesn’t compute. Something has gone wrong somewhere.

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“I don’t know whether it’s just a fad where people are saying these things and then they’ll move on to something else or whether this is now a permanent thing.”

Her comments come at a time of acute sensitivity about sexual harassment in Westminster after scandals that contributed to the downfall of two cabinet ministers, Michael Fallon and Damian Green, and the suspension of a number of Conservative and Labour MPs for inappropriate behaviour and comments.

Badenoch, who is in charge of candidate selection, said one of her first tasks in the job had been to remove her husband from the Conservative list because it was a potential conflict of interest.

She also spoke of how she did not believe in quotas to increase diversity in the party because they have “unintended consequences”.

Separately, Operation Black Vote launched its latest campaign to increase diversity among MPs with a shadowing scheme for 38 aspiring politicians from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Previous MPs to have graduated from the scheme include Conservative former minister Helen Grant, Labour’s Marsha de Cordova, Tan Dhesi, the first turban dressed Sikh MP and the shadow treasury minister Clive Lewis.

Simon Woolley, director of Operation Black Vote, said he was convinced that this cohort would include the first black prime minister of the UK.

“There is one thing that I will guarantee from this group of individuals: that having embraced a path of political leadership, you will see a number of these young men and women sitting on the Commons green benches representing constituencies and serving their country,” he said.