Kemi Badenoch, of Nigerian descent, has been elected as the leader of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom.
The Conservatives announced this on Saturday via their official X page, stating: “ANNOUNCED: @KemiBadenoch has been elected Leader of the Conservative Party.”
She defeated Robert Jenrick in the final round of voting, garnering 53,806 votes to Jenrick’s 41,388.
Enormous Honor
Reacting to the development, Badenoch, who BBC reports is the first Black woman to lead a major political party in the UK, described her election as an “enormous honour,” pledging to hold the ruling Labour government accountable.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer congratulated Kemi Badenoch on her new political role, stating, “The first Black leader of a Westminster party is a proud moment for our country. I look forward to working with you and your party in the interests of the British people,” as reported by BBC
Kemi is stepping into the shoes of Rishi Sunak, the former UK Prime Minister who also led the Conservatives. Under Sunak, the Conservatives lost the UK Prime Minister election in July to the Labour Party.
A Brief on Kemi
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.
Foray into Politics
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.
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