Kemi Badenoch, a politician accustomed to controversy whose parents were from Nigeria, was appointed leader of the British Conservative Party on Saturday, November 2, replacing former prime minister Rishi Sunak, whose trade minister she was for two years. At 44, this trained computer engineer, enthusiastic supporter of Brexit and representative of the right wing of the Tory party, has made a name for herself above all for her propensity to condemn supposed "wokism" and the claims of the LGBTQIA + community.
Combative and appreciated by her supporters for her outspokenness, Badenoch will have to set about rebuilding her party, wiped out by an historic defeat in July's general election. It now has just 121 seats in the House of Commons, compared with Labour's 402. The Tories have dominated British politics for the past 14 years, but have been punished for David Cameron's 2010 era of austerity, Brexit and the chaotic terms of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. "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 next election, we have not just a clear set of pledges that appeal to the British people, but a clear plan for how to implement them," said Badenoch on Saturday when the results were announced.
Born in Wimbledon, an affluent suburb of South London, to parents of Nigerian origin (father a doctor, mother an academic), Badenoch was raised between Lagos, Nigeria and the US. She began her career with IT publishers and banks before becoming digital director of the weekly magazine The Spectator, the bible of the British right.
Elected MP for the first time in 2017, this mother of three young children who is married to a banker, was selected by Conservative party members over Robert Jenrick, her main rival. The 42-year-old Jenrick, formerly Sunak's secretary of state for migration, had based his entire campaign on his promise to reduce migration to "almost zero," to take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights and to revive the plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, abandoned by Labour's Keir Starmer on his arrival in Downing Street.
While Badenoch was careful not to be too specific in her reform proposals, she did make a number of controversial statements, claiming, for example, that "about 5%-10% of civil servants are so bad that they should be in prison" or that the benefits paid to women during maternity leave were "excessive" – despite being among the lowest in Europe.
You have 50.26% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.