Former British Business Secretary, Kemi Badenoch, has emerged as the new leader of the Conservative Party, defeating Robert Jenrick in the final round of voting.
Badenoch, raised in Nigeria, is the first black woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom and takes over a Conservative Party reeling from its worst-ever election defeat.
She takes over from Rishi Sunak as leader of the opposition after winning 53,806 votes against 41,388 for Jenrick, in a result announced by the party on Saturday morning.
– Most people said they had not formed an opinion of Ms Badenoch yet, according to a YouGov poll. But 40 per cent of those questioned said they disliked her.
Former justice secretary Robert Buckland during an interview with the National News, said that as a leader Ms Badenoch “will be an excellent person to work with”, having seen her strong character and abilities first-hand when they worked in government together.
“She knows that the party’s values need to be reset and that we’ve got to win trust as without trust, we don’t get anywhere in terms of electoral success,” he added. “I think she better understands that more than most and that’s why she deserved to win.”
The role as opposition leader was an “unenviable task” and Ms Badenoch “will not be under any doubt about the scale of work ahead to win back power”, he added.
“She is the person who had more MP support than any other in the leadership race so people need to knuckle down and get on with the job of opposing the government, not opposing each other.”
He added that he hoped a “new phase in politics” would see Ms Badenoch unite the party and “the Tories regrouping”.
He also suggested that she listen to think tanks and policy units who have the expertise to provide her with new and innovative policies.
“It’s going to be very hard and unglamorous, but I believe Kemi has the strength of spirit to do it,” he told the National News during an interview.
Reacting to her victory, Badenoch, says it is time to get down to business in the United Kingdom.
“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,” she said.
‘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,” she said.
Who is Kemi Badenoch
Badenoch was born in January 1980 in Wimbledon, London, to Nigerian parents Femi and Feyi Adegoke. After spending part of her childhood in the US and Lagos, Nigeria, she returned to the UK at age 16.
She studied Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex, completing her MEng in 2003, and then worked as a software engineer at Logica from 2003 to 2006. As a part-time student at Birkbeck, University of London, she completed an LLB in 2009.
Badenoch also worked as a systems analyst at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group before pursuing a career in consultancy and financial services, serving as an associate director at Coutts & Co from 2006 to 2013 and later as a digital director at The Spectator from 2015 to 2016.
At 25, Badenoch joined the Conservative Party in 2005 and contested the 2010 general election for the Dulwich and West Norwood constituency against Labour’s Tessa Jowell, finishing third.
After two years, she stood for the Conservatives in the London Assembly election, where she was placed fifth on the London-wide list. In 2015, she became a new Assembly Member after Victoria Borwick resigned her seat and retained her position in the Assembly during the 2016 election.
In 2017, Badenoch was shortlisted to be the Conservative Party’s candidate for the marginal Hampstead and Kilburn constituency but was unsuccessful. However, she was selected as the Conservative candidate for Saffron Walden.
In September 2017, Badenoch was appointed to the 1922 Executive Committee and the Parliamentary Justice Select Committee. A few months later, she became the Conservative Party’s Vice-Chair for Candidates.
In July 2019, she was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In February 2020, she became Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Equalities.
In September 2021, Badenoch was promoted to Minister of State for Equalities and appointed Minister of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government in a government reshuffle.
On July 6, 2022, she resigned from the government in a joint statement with fellow Ministers Alex Burghart, Neil O’Brien, Lee Rowley, and Julia Lopez, citing Boris Johnson’s handling of the Chris Pincher scandal.
At the time, she launched a bid to replace Johnson as Conservative Party leader, advocating for a strong but limited government. She also criticized the target of net-zero carbon emissions as “ill-thought-through,” arguing that politicians had become reliant on the state to solve most problems.
Kemi is married to Hamish Badenoch, who works for Deutsche Bank, and they have two daughters and a son. Hamish was a Conservative councillor from 2014 to 2018 on the Merton London Borough Council, representing Wimbledon Village.
He also contested the Foyle seat for the Northern Ireland Conservatives in the 2015 general election but was unsuccessful.
Until 2016, Badenoch served as a board member of the Charlton Triangle Homes housing association and was a school governor at St.
Thomas the Apostle College in Southwark and Jubilee Primary School. Her father, Femi, passed away in February 2022.
