Who is Kemi Badenoch, the first Black woman to lead Britain's Conservative Party?
JILL LAWLESS
Sat, November 2, 2024
Britain's Member of Parliament Kemi Badenoch, smiles as she poses for the media after being elected as the new leader of the opposition Conservative Party, in London, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Conservative leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch addresses members during the Conservative Party Conference at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, England, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
LONDON (AP) — The first Black woman to lead a major U.K. political party, Kemi Badenoch is an upbeat and outspoken libertarian who thinks the British state is broken — and that she's the one to fix it with smaller government and radical new ideas.
The new leader of Britain’s right-of-center Conservative Party was born Olukemi Adegoke in London in 1980 to well-off Nigerian parents — a doctor and an academic — and spent much of her childhood in the West African country.
She has said that the experience of Nigeria’s economic and social upheavals shaped her political outlook.
“I grew up somewhere where the lights didn’t come on, where we ran out of fuel frequently despite being an oil-producing country,” Badenoch told the BBC last week.
“I don’t take what we have in this country for granted,” she said. “I meet a lot of people who assume that things are good here because things are good here and they always will be. They don’t realize just how much work and sacrifice was required in order to get that.”
Returning to the U.K. aged 16 during a period of turmoil in Nigeria, she worked part-time at McDonalds while completing school, then studied computer systems engineering at the University of Sussex. She later got a law degree and worked in financial services.
In 2012, she married banker Hamish Badenoch, with whom she has three children.
She was elected to the London Assembly in 2015 and to Parliament in 2017. She held a series of government posts in the 2019-22 government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, before becoming part of a mass ministerial exodus in July 2022 over a series of ethics scandals that triggered Johnson’s downfall.
Badenoch ran unsuccessfully to succeed Johnson, boosting her profile in the process. She was appointed trade secretary in the 49-day government of Prime Minister Liz Truss, and business secretary under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
She held onto her seat in Parliament in July's national election, which saw the Labour Party win a huge majority and the Conservatives reduced to 121 lawmakers in the 650-seat House of Commons.
Like many Conservatives, Badenoch idolizes Margaret Thatcher, the party’s first female leader, who transformed Britain with her free-market policies in the 1980s. Citing her engineering background as evidence she’s a problem-solver, she depicts herself as a disruptor, arguing for a low-tax, free-market economy and pledging to “rewire, reboot and reprogram” the British state.
A critic of multiculturalism and self-proclaimed enemy of wokeness, Badenoch is an opponent of “identity politics,” gender-neutral bathrooms and government plans to reduce U.K. carbon emissions.
Supporters think her charismatic, outspoken style is just what the Conservative Party needs to come back from its worst-ever election defeat. During her leadership campaign, her backers wore T-shirts urging: “Be more Kemi.”
Critics say Badenoch has clashed with colleagues and civil servants and has a tendency to make rash statements and provoke unnecessary fights. During the leadership campaign she drew criticism for saying that “not all cultures are equally valid,” and for suggesting that maternity pay was excessive — though she later backtracked on that claim.
“I do speak my mind,” she told the BBC. “And I tell the truth.”
Kemi Badenoch Becomes UK Conservative Party Leader, Beating Robert Jenrick In Final Vote
Caroline Frost
Sat, November 2, 2024 at 5:17 AM MDT
Kemi Badenoch has become the UK Conservative Party leader, beating her colleague Robert Jenrick in the final vote, to become the first Black leader of a British national political party.
Badenoch previously engaged in a social media war of words with Doctor Who star David Tennant. She said she “wasn’t afraid of Doctor Who” after the pair clashed on trans rights.
Badenoch won by more than 10,000 votes from a total poll of more than 130,000. Party members across the country voted in the contest, which followed the Tory party defeat in the UK general election this summer, after which defeated prime minister Rishi Sunak said he would stand down.
Conservative Party chairman Richard Fuller introduced the conference to announce the result in London 11am Saturday morning. He stressed that the party, currently in opposition, must unite in addressing the country’s needs. 1922 committee chairman Bob Blackman then announced the winner of the leadership campaign.
Early favourite James Cleverly was defeated earlier in the contest
Rise of Kemi Badenoch – from childhood in Nigeria to leader of the Conservative Party
Ethan Croft
Sat, November 2, 2024 at 6:14 AM MDT
Kemi Badenoch has been elected the new leader of the Conservative Party - David Rose for The Telegraph
Kemi Badenoch’s victory in the Conservative Party leadership contest marks a number of milestones in British political history.
She is the first black woman to lead a major political party and only the second woman to serve as permanent Leader of the Opposition after Margaret Thatcher.
Most strikingly, perhaps, Mrs Badenoch is the first major party leader to identify as a “first generation immigrant”.
Mrs Badenoch and her husband Hamish have two daughters and a son - Jenny Goodall/Shutterstock
She was born Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke in Britain in January 1980 after her Nigerian parents travelled to a specialist maternity hospital in south London to receive private healthcare.
After their daughter was born, the Adegokes returned to Nigeria where Mrs Badenoch grew up.
But because she was born in Britain before a Thatcher-era change to citizenship laws, Olukemi, known as “Kemi”, later found she was able to claim British citizenship, a discovery she has likened to finding out she possessed one of Willy Wonka’s “Golden Tickets”.
Kemi (pictured second left, with brother Fola, sister lola and mother Feyi) is the oldest of three children
Mrs Badenoch visiting McDonald’s headquarters, a company for whom she worked when she was studying A-levels in London - Jeff Gilbert/Alamy
In 1996, during one of the country’s periodic political and economic crises, she returned to Britain aged 16 to live with a family friend in Wimbledon and study A-levels while working part-time in McDonald’s.
Mrs Badenoch has described her childhood in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, as “middle-class” when compared to her “very poor” surroundings. Her father Femi worked in the city as a GP while her mother Feyi was a professor of physiology at the University of Lagos
“Being middle class in Nigeria still meant having no running water or electricity, sometimes taking your own chair to school,” she has said.
In her maiden speech as an MP she described “living without electricity and doing my homework by candlelight, because the state electricity board could not provide power, and fetching water in heavy, rusty buckets from a borehole a mile away, because the nationalised water company could not get water out of the taps.”
Mrs Badenoch has recalled doing manual labour as part of her high school education. “Mostly it meant getting up at 5am and cutting grass endlessly. Everyone had their own machete. Because that’s how you cut grass in Africa. There were no lawn mowers. We had to tend our own patches. I still feel as if I have got the blisters.”
She has said the blight of corruption in the Nigeria of her childhood helped form her political opinions. Mrs Badenoch also remembers being inspired by Margaret Thatcher as a girl, when she was often prohibited from participating in certain school activities because of her sex.
Mrs Badenoch and her husband Hamish with Theresa May, the former Conservative Party leader - Instagram
After taking A-levels in maths, biology and chemistry, she embarked on a computer systems engineering course at Sussex University.
She joined the Conservative Party in 2005, partly because of her irritation with the “stupid Lefty white kids” she encountered at university.
Mrs Badenoch met her husband, investment banker Hamish Badenoch, in her local south London Conservative association in 2009.
Mrs Badenoch with her husband Hamish after the party leadership result was announced on Saturday - Eddie Mulholland for The Telegraph
He was a member of the association which selected her as a parliamentary candidate in the 2010 general election. She came third in the Dulwich and West Norwood seat, losing out to Labour grandee Tessa Jowell.
The pair struck up a friendship after realising they had been born in the same Wimbledon hospital and soon became a couple. They married in 2012 at a Catholic church in Mayfair, before travelling to Lagos for a traditional Nigerian wedding ceremony. They have two daughters and a son.
Mr Badenoch was elected as a Conservative councillor in 2014 and served until 2018. Reportedly, the couple had an understanding that whichever one of them achieved national office first would take the lead with their political career, while the other would carry on in their non-political job.
She worked at Coutts Bank and The Spectator before being elected as a Conservative member of the London Assembly in 2015 and later Tory MP for Saffron Walden in 2017. Mr Badenoch continues to work in banking.
Telegraph readers on Kemi Badenoch’s victory: ‘She will give Starmer a headache’
Lorna Perry
Sat, November 2, 2024
Kemi Badenoch delivers a speech in London after she was announced as the new Conservative Party leader - Andy Rain/Shuttershock
Sat, November 2, 2024
Kemi Badenoch delivers a speech in London after she was announced as the new Conservative Party leader - Andy Rain/Shuttershock
After 14-and-a half-weeks of intense campaigning, Kemi Badenoch has officially won the Conservative Party leadership race.
It is “time to get down to business” and “renew” the Conservatives and Britain, Mrs Badenoch said in her acceptance speech.
She told party supporters: “The task that stands before us is tough but simple. Our first responsibility as His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition is to hold this Labour Government to account.
“Our second is no less important, it is to prepare over the course of the next few years for government, to ensure that by the time of the election, we have not just a clear set of Conservative pledges that appeal to the British people, but a clear plan for how to implement them.”
Mrs Badenoch’s campaign centred on “first principles”, including family, freedom and personal responsibility, instead of policies, claiming it is too early to put forward a detailed offering.
On July 5, former prime minister Rishi Sunak announced he would be stepping down as leader of the Conservatives.
Six candidates entered the race to become the next party leader: Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch. on Saturday, Mrs Badenoch has been chosen as the face of the party’s future.
Mrs Badenoch now confronts the dual task of uniting a party that has been marred by in-fighting over the past three years and reviving the Tories’s electoral fortunes after they slumped to a historic defeat at the general election in July.
In light of the announcement, Telegraph readers have, in turn, been weighing in on Mrs Badenoch’s victory. From a resurgence of hope for change to concerns about her stance on immigration, here’s what you have had to say on the Tory leadership race result.
‘A little bit of Thatcher about her’
Many readers expressed enthusiasm for the result, voicing high expectations for her ability to take on Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister.
Reader Richard Schrader said: “Kemi will eviscerate Starmer. She is the right person to lead the opposition. There is no need to come up with policies until nearer the next election. The job right now is to oppose and it needs to be someone who can bring some aggression to the job.”
CP added: “She will give Starmer a headache. She is more of a realist in terms of policy and does not promise what she knows would be undeliverable.”
Chris Green was equally impressed: “Watched the speech – she hit all the right notes. Measured, balanced and to the point, with a presence that holds attention. She has a little bit of star quality, and a little bit of Thatcher about her. If she keeps this up, she’ll be a success.”
A few Reform voters shared how Mrs Badenoch’s fighting spirit could convert them back to being Conservative supporters.
John Dawkins said: “She has the fighting spirit and intelligence to tackle this enormous task. I’m a Reform voter at present, but look forward to the next couple of years in the battle to rebuild the Right.”
Jo Hunn echoed a similar sentiment: “Seems like a good choice to me – common sense, no-nonsense and she will wipe the floor with Starmer at PMQs. I voted Reform at the last election, but I will watch this with interest.”
‘Last nail in the coffin of Conservatives’
Some readers voiced deep disappointment, predicting that her leadership will push the Tories closer to extinction and affirming their loyalty to Reform.
Mike Noel argued: “Kemi is not radical enough to get the Tories back on track. The Conservatives betrayed the British people with their unConservative policies and she was party to this core group: all the more reason to vote Reform.”
Peter Marsh felt that Mrs Badenoch was “the last nail in the coffin of the Conservative party”.
He added: “A very sad day indeed. Farage must be in stitches. I bet he can’t believe his luck.”
Charles Swan congratulated Mrs Badenoch but continued: “I won’t be voting Tories next time. It is no longer the party it was.”
Jim Bale also weighed in: “I like her and she’s their best shot but the party is still dominated by people who aren’t what I would class as Conservative and I’m afraid I’ve already gone to Reform.”
‘The Tories are toast’
Mrs Badenoch’s commitment to remaining in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is a key reason many are choosing to stay with Reform UK.
JP Jones expressed disappointment: “Bad news for the country. Another globalist at the helm of a main party. This will not bring Reform voters back into the fold given her pro-immigration stance. This will make it harder to get rid of Starmer.”
Richard Russell agreed, saying: “Well, that’s it, folks, the Tories are toast. They’ve crowned another leader who’s all-in on mass migration and hard net zero, so why not just cut the charade and merge with Labour? Honestly, they haven’t been Right-wing for decades now. The only true Right-wing option left is Reform UK.”
Paul Jones argued: “The ‘one nation’ Tories will now be out of government for at least a decade. Already Kemi’s mentor, Gove in the Spectator, is pushing to stay in the ECHR.
“Leaving the ECHR and towing the boats back to France, minimising legal migration, scrapping ‘net zero’, protecting free speech, etc, will only come from Reform. Let us see what happens in the local elections next year.”
‘The figures themselves speak of failure’
Several Telegraph readers saw the low voter turnout as a clear sign of dwindling Conservative support.
Joe Pendlebury said: “The figures themselves speak of failure – less than ten per cent of the membership of earlier years. Conservatives have moved to Reform.”
Ivan Milatovic added: “You had 141,000 people voting two years ago. That is now down to 95,000. Mr Sunak won more votes when he lost than Mrs Badenoch did. If that is not a sign of a party in huge trouble, I don’t know what is.”
P Lamb shared a similar sentiment: “Two years ago, Truss got 81,000 votes and Sunak 60,000 votes. Now Badenoch wins with 53,000 votes. The figures suggest that the Conservatives are a declining force, possibly terminally.”
Mr Melchett didn’t think the figures were ‘exactly sparkling’. He argued: “Only a 72 per cent turnout and a far closer winning margin than you might have expected given the press. The party is potentially still divided quite heavily and appealing to both sides is her first and probably hardest job.”
UK Conservatives pick Kemi Badenoch as new leader, first Black woman to head a big British party
Some readers voiced deep disappointment, predicting that her leadership will push the Tories closer to extinction and affirming their loyalty to Reform.
Mike Noel argued: “Kemi is not radical enough to get the Tories back on track. The Conservatives betrayed the British people with their unConservative policies and she was party to this core group: all the more reason to vote Reform.”
Peter Marsh felt that Mrs Badenoch was “the last nail in the coffin of the Conservative party”.
He added: “A very sad day indeed. Farage must be in stitches. I bet he can’t believe his luck.”
Charles Swan congratulated Mrs Badenoch but continued: “I won’t be voting Tories next time. It is no longer the party it was.”
Jim Bale also weighed in: “I like her and she’s their best shot but the party is still dominated by people who aren’t what I would class as Conservative and I’m afraid I’ve already gone to Reform.”
‘The Tories are toast’
Mrs Badenoch’s commitment to remaining in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is a key reason many are choosing to stay with Reform UK.
JP Jones expressed disappointment: “Bad news for the country. Another globalist at the helm of a main party. This will not bring Reform voters back into the fold given her pro-immigration stance. This will make it harder to get rid of Starmer.”
Richard Russell agreed, saying: “Well, that’s it, folks, the Tories are toast. They’ve crowned another leader who’s all-in on mass migration and hard net zero, so why not just cut the charade and merge with Labour? Honestly, they haven’t been Right-wing for decades now. The only true Right-wing option left is Reform UK.”
Paul Jones argued: “The ‘one nation’ Tories will now be out of government for at least a decade. Already Kemi’s mentor, Gove in the Spectator, is pushing to stay in the ECHR.
“Leaving the ECHR and towing the boats back to France, minimising legal migration, scrapping ‘net zero’, protecting free speech, etc, will only come from Reform. Let us see what happens in the local elections next year.”
‘The figures themselves speak of failure’
Several Telegraph readers saw the low voter turnout as a clear sign of dwindling Conservative support.
Joe Pendlebury said: “The figures themselves speak of failure – less than ten per cent of the membership of earlier years. Conservatives have moved to Reform.”
Ivan Milatovic added: “You had 141,000 people voting two years ago. That is now down to 95,000. Mr Sunak won more votes when he lost than Mrs Badenoch did. If that is not a sign of a party in huge trouble, I don’t know what is.”
P Lamb shared a similar sentiment: “Two years ago, Truss got 81,000 votes and Sunak 60,000 votes. Now Badenoch wins with 53,000 votes. The figures suggest that the Conservatives are a declining force, possibly terminally.”
Mr Melchett didn’t think the figures were ‘exactly sparkling’. He argued: “Only a 72 per cent turnout and a far closer winning margin than you might have expected given the press. The party is potentially still divided quite heavily and appealing to both sides is her first and probably hardest job.”
UK Conservatives pick Kemi Badenoch as new leader, first Black woman to head a big British party
JILL LAWLESS
AP
Updated Sat, November 2, 2024
Britain's Member of Parliament Kemi Badenoch speaks after being elected as the new leader of the opposition Conservative Party, in London, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Britain's Member of Parliament Kemi Badenoch, speaks after being elected as the new leader of the opposition Conservative Party, in London, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Britain's Member of Parliament Kemi Badenoch, right, poses with her husband Hamish Badenoch for the cameras after being elected as the new leader of the opposition Conservative Party, in London, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
LONDON (AP) — Outspoken, right-leaning lawmaker Kemi Badenoch was named leader of Britain's opposition Conservatives on Saturday, as the party tries to rebound from a crushing election defeat that ended its 14 years in power.
The first Black woman to lead a major British political party, Badenoch (pronounced BADE-enock) has pledged to bring the right-of-center Tories “renewal” by pushing for a smaller state and rejecting identity politics.
Badenoch defeated rival candidate Robert Jenrick in an online and postal ballot of party members, securing 57% of the almost 100,000 votes cast, to Jenrick's 43%.
Badenoch, 44, replaces former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who in July led the Conservatives to their worst election result since 1832.
The new leader’s daunting challenge is to restore the party’s reputation after years of division, scandal and economic tumult, hammer Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s policies on key issues including the economy and immigration, and return the Conservatives to power at the next election, due by 2029.
“The task that stands before us is tough but simple,” Badenoch said in a victory speech to a roomful of Conservative lawmakers, staff and journalists in London. She said the party's job was to hold the Labour government to account, and to craft pledges and a plan for government.
Addressing the party's election drubbing, she said “we have to be honest — honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip.”
“The time has come to tell the truth, to stand up for our principles, to plan for our future, to reset our politics and our thinking, and to give our party, and our country, the new start that they deserve," Badenoch said.
A business secretary in Sunak's government, Badenoch was born in London to Nigerian parents and spent much of her childhood in the West African country.
The former software engineer depicts herself as a disruptor, arguing for a low-tax, free-market economy and pledging to “rewire, reboot and reprogram” the British state. Like her rival Jenrick, she has criticized multiculturalism and called for lower immigration, though unlike him she has not demanded that Britain leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
A self-proclaimed enemy of wokeness, Badenoch opposes identity politics, gender-neutral bathrooms and government plans to reduce U.K. carbon emissions. During the leadership campaign she drew criticism for saying that “not all cultures are equally valid,” and for suggesting that maternity pay was excessive.
Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said the Conservative Party was likely to “swing towards the right both in terms of its economic policies and its social policies” under Badenoch.
He predicted Badenoch would pursue "what you might call the boats, boilers and bathrooms strategy .... focusing very much on the trans issue, the immigration issue and skepticism about progress towards net zero.”
While the Conservative Party is unrepresentative of the country as a whole — its dwindling membership of 132,000 is largely made up of affluent, older white men – its upper echelons have become markedly more diverse.
Badenoch is the Tories’ fourth female leader, after Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May and Liz Truss, all of whom became prime minister. She’s the second Conservative leader of color, after Sunak, and the first with African roots. The center-left Labour Party has a more diverse membership but has only ever been led by white men.
In a leadership contest that lasted more than three months, Conservative lawmakers reduced the field from six candidates in a series of votes before putting the final two to the wider party membership.
Both finalists came from the right of the party, and argued they could win voters back from Reform U.K., the hard-right, anti-immigrant party led by populist politician Nigel Farage that has eaten away at Conservative support.
But the party also lost many voters to the winning party, Labour, and to the centrist Liberal Democrats, and some Conservatives worry that tacking right will lead the party away from public opinion.
Starmer's government has had a rocky first few months in office, beset by negative headlines, fiscal gloom and a plummeting approval rating.
But Bale said that the historical record suggests the odds are against Badenoch leading the Conservatives back to power in 2029.
“It’s quite unusual for someone to take over when a party gets very badly beaten and manage to lead it to election victory," he said. "However, Keir Starmer did exactly that after 2019. So records are there to be broken.”
Who is Kemi Badenoch? Former business secretary elected Conservative Party leader
Updated Sat, November 2, 2024
Britain's Member of Parliament Kemi Badenoch speaks after being elected as the new leader of the opposition Conservative Party, in London, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Britain's Member of Parliament Kemi Badenoch, speaks after being elected as the new leader of the opposition Conservative Party, in London, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Britain's Member of Parliament Kemi Badenoch, right, poses with her husband Hamish Badenoch for the cameras after being elected as the new leader of the opposition Conservative Party, in London, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
LONDON (AP) — Outspoken, right-leaning lawmaker Kemi Badenoch was named leader of Britain's opposition Conservatives on Saturday, as the party tries to rebound from a crushing election defeat that ended its 14 years in power.
The first Black woman to lead a major British political party, Badenoch (pronounced BADE-enock) has pledged to bring the right-of-center Tories “renewal” by pushing for a smaller state and rejecting identity politics.
Badenoch defeated rival candidate Robert Jenrick in an online and postal ballot of party members, securing 57% of the almost 100,000 votes cast, to Jenrick's 43%.
Badenoch, 44, replaces former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who in July led the Conservatives to their worst election result since 1832.
The new leader’s daunting challenge is to restore the party’s reputation after years of division, scandal and economic tumult, hammer Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s policies on key issues including the economy and immigration, and return the Conservatives to power at the next election, due by 2029.
“The task that stands before us is tough but simple,” Badenoch said in a victory speech to a roomful of Conservative lawmakers, staff and journalists in London. She said the party's job was to hold the Labour government to account, and to craft pledges and a plan for government.
Addressing the party's election drubbing, she said “we have to be honest — honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip.”
“The time has come to tell the truth, to stand up for our principles, to plan for our future, to reset our politics and our thinking, and to give our party, and our country, the new start that they deserve," Badenoch said.
A business secretary in Sunak's government, Badenoch was born in London to Nigerian parents and spent much of her childhood in the West African country.
The former software engineer depicts herself as a disruptor, arguing for a low-tax, free-market economy and pledging to “rewire, reboot and reprogram” the British state. Like her rival Jenrick, she has criticized multiculturalism and called for lower immigration, though unlike him she has not demanded that Britain leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
A self-proclaimed enemy of wokeness, Badenoch opposes identity politics, gender-neutral bathrooms and government plans to reduce U.K. carbon emissions. During the leadership campaign she drew criticism for saying that “not all cultures are equally valid,” and for suggesting that maternity pay was excessive.
Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said the Conservative Party was likely to “swing towards the right both in terms of its economic policies and its social policies” under Badenoch.
He predicted Badenoch would pursue "what you might call the boats, boilers and bathrooms strategy .... focusing very much on the trans issue, the immigration issue and skepticism about progress towards net zero.”
While the Conservative Party is unrepresentative of the country as a whole — its dwindling membership of 132,000 is largely made up of affluent, older white men – its upper echelons have become markedly more diverse.
Badenoch is the Tories’ fourth female leader, after Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May and Liz Truss, all of whom became prime minister. She’s the second Conservative leader of color, after Sunak, and the first with African roots. The center-left Labour Party has a more diverse membership but has only ever been led by white men.
In a leadership contest that lasted more than three months, Conservative lawmakers reduced the field from six candidates in a series of votes before putting the final two to the wider party membership.
Both finalists came from the right of the party, and argued they could win voters back from Reform U.K., the hard-right, anti-immigrant party led by populist politician Nigel Farage that has eaten away at Conservative support.
But the party also lost many voters to the winning party, Labour, and to the centrist Liberal Democrats, and some Conservatives worry that tacking right will lead the party away from public opinion.
Starmer's government has had a rocky first few months in office, beset by negative headlines, fiscal gloom and a plummeting approval rating.
But Bale said that the historical record suggests the odds are against Badenoch leading the Conservatives back to power in 2029.
“It’s quite unusual for someone to take over when a party gets very badly beaten and manage to lead it to election victory," he said. "However, Keir Starmer did exactly that after 2019. So records are there to be broken.”
Who is Kemi Badenoch? Former business secretary elected Conservative Party leader
Rachael Burford,William Mata,Sian Baldwin and Tamara Davison
Sat, November 2, 2024
Who is Kemi Badenoch? Former business secretary elected Conservative Party leader
Kemi Badenoch has won the Conservative Party leadership election, defeating Robert Jenrick in the final run off.
The former Business Secretary received 53,806 votes among party members, while her rival secured 41,388.
She will now lead HM opposition, taking over from departing party leader Rishi Sunak - who announced he would step down following the party losing power in July.
The North West Essex MP and former London Assembly member has been seen as being on the right of the party and has had a fast rise to the top.
Her immediate challenge is to unite her party after the at times fractious leadership contest
She becomes the first black woman to lead a major British political party.
Here is her story.
Kemi Badenoch defeated Robert Jenrick ((Stefan Rousseau/PA))
What is Kemi Badenoch’s political background?
Born in Wimbledon, the 44-year-old lived in the US and Nigeria as a child before returning to the UK aged 16. Her father, Femi Adegoke, was a GP and her mother, Feyi Adegoke, was a professor of physiology.
She has talked about working at McDonald’s while studying for her A-levels in Morden, south London.
After graduating from the University of Sussex with a master's degree in computer systems engineering, she worked for companies including the Royal Bank of Scotland and private bank Coutts, as well as the Spectator magazine.
She joined the Conservative Party in 2005, aged 25. Five years later, she stood as the Tory candidate in Dulwich and West Norwood, coming third in the vote won by Labour's Tessa Jowell.
Then in September 2015 she joined the London Assembly, retaining her seat at the 2016 election. She became the London Tory spokeswoman for the economy and also sat on the transport committee and policing and crime committee.
She backed the Vote Leave campaign in 2016 and at the following year’s election she she stood in the safe Conservative seat of Saffron Walden in Essex and was elected to Parliament.
She is married to banker Hamish Badenoch with whom she has three children.
Born in Wimbledon, Ms Badenoch lived in the US and Nigeria as a child before returning to the UK aged 16 (PA Wire)
Kemi Badenoch’s rise through the Tory ranks
Ms Badenoch has had a long career within the Conservative Party and has been tipped consistently for big things.
She has served as international trade secretary before taking up her current role as business and trade secretary and in 2022, she put herself forward to replace former prime minister Boris Johnson as a “fresh face” for the Tories.
Ms Badenoch showed her right-wing credentials by standing on an anti-woke and small government platform.
More than a dozen Tory colleagues, including Michael Gove, backed her bid but, she ultimately lost to Liz Truss in the leadership campaign, finishing fourth.
She then went on to serve as international trade secretary from September 2022 to February 2023 and minister for women and equalities.
When the Tories lost power at the July general election, Ms Badenoch became shadow secretary of state for housing, communities and local government.
Kemi Badenoch’s controversies
Ms Badenoch has rubbed people up the wrong way, with Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and actor David Tennant both expressing frustration with her tone.
She was also criticised for publicly shaming journalist Nadine White in 2021. The HuffPost reporter had asked the then equalities minister’s office about suggestions Ms Badenoch had refused to participate in a video featuring black cross-party politicians seeking to promote the Covid-19 vaccination.
Screenshots of Ms White’s two emails were shared on Twitter by Ms Badenoch, who branded them “creepy and bizarre”. Labour called for an investigation and Ms White said the MP’s actions set a dangerous precedent, threatening the role of a free press.
Ms Badenoch also admitted hacking Harriet Harman’s website in 2008 as part of a “foolish prank”. She guessed the Labour MP’s password and then posted a hoax blog post claiming that the then-minister for women and equality supported Boris Johnson in the London elections.
During her time as minister for women and equalities she challenged the Equality Act and has furthered her criticism in her latest leadership campaign by saying “two tier policing” was softer on protesters for progressive causes and racial minorities in recent riots.
Tory leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch walks with her team through the Birmingham International Conference Centre (PA Wire)
In an online rally, she said: “I think that one of the things we need to strongly emphasise is equality under the law.
“There are too many people who have misinterpreted the Equality Act and think that there are different groups which are protected in different ways. That is not true.
“It is one of the things that has fed a lot of the discontent within communities, whether they’re complaining about two-tier policing or about the equality law being misapplied. You see it, whether it’s in the battles between women and trans rights activists, between different religions, between men and women, between black and white.”
Ms Badenoch attracted criticism for not attending a Conservative leadership husting in Yarm, North Yorkshire on August 17 because she was on holiday.
A supporter of one of her rivals said her non-appearance showed she did not value the region enough, pointing out that the event was the sole one being held in the north.
At the Conservative Party Conference she made headlines for suggesting one in ten civil servants should be arrested for being terrible at their jobs and describing maternity pay as “excessive”.
One senior Tory MP told the Standard that Ms Badenoch could be an exciting leader, but some were concerned about her imploding.
“We know she’s Mrs T,” they said. “We just haven’t worked out if that’s Thatcher or Truss.”
Having announced her bid to lead her party with an article in the Times where she said the last administration “talked right and governed left” she has tried to maximise her appeal to those who may have been tempted to vote for Reform UK at the general election.
Ms Badenoch made headlines during the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham when she described maternity pay as “excessive” and said five to 10 per cent of civil servants should “be in prison”.
