First steps
The British Conservative Party chose this Saturday former Trade Minister Kemi Badenoch as its new leader. Badenoch, the first Black woman to hold the post, secured the backing of 53,806 party members, ahead of the 41,388 won by her rival, the former Immigration Secretary Robert Jenrick. Close to the right wing of the party, the new Conservative leader has shown tough stances on gender identity policies and has defended near-libertarian economic positions. Her main challenges will be to unify the party after a lengthy primary process and to win back voters’ trust after the July electoral debacle, which led to the resignation of the then leader, Rishi Sunak.
“Our party is essential for the country’s success. But to be heard we must be honest. Honest about the fact that we have made mistakes,” Badenoch said after learning the result of the vote. “The time has come to tell the truth, defend our principles, plan our future, realign our policy and our thinking, and give our party and our country the fresh start they deserve. It is time to roll up our sleeves and renew ourselves,” she added.
First steps
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Born in Wimbledon in the southwest of London in 1980, Badenoch spent most of her childhood in Nigeria, the country of her parents’ origin. Although she came from a comfortable family in that African nation, the new Conservative leader did not enjoy great luxuries when she arrived in the United Kingdom at 16 to pursue higher education. She even took a job at a McDonald’s in the capital to cover her expenses, a detail of her résumé that has been highlighted politically far more than her law degree and computer science studies at the University of Sussex. A devoted admirer of Margaret Thatcher, Badenoch has been highly critical of the left from a young age and has presented herself to voters as a self-made woman.
She joined the Conservative Party in 2005 but did not win a seat in the House of Commons until 2017, a year after publicly backing Brexit. She held low-profile posts in the Boris Johnson government until, in 2022, she was part of the group of ministers and state secretaries who resigned to bring down the prime minister, worn down by internal scandals. Under the protective wing of former minister Michael Gove, Badenoch contested those primaries that year despite not having held positions as high-profile as her rivals. She was eliminated when only four candidates remained, a result that helped position her as one of the party’s most visible faces.
Political positions
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Since then and up to the Conservatives’ defeat in the July elections, Badenoch has held senior posts in the governments of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, initially as International Trade Minister and later as Minister for Business and Trade. From that post she has continued to defend her political leanings, maintaining a firm stance in the so‑called culture wars against the left and backing a less interventionist state in economic matters. During the leadership race she described maternity benefits as excessive, though she later sought to clarify that her remarks targeted overbearing regulation that affects businesses rather than the needs of families.
Badenoch has faced criticism from some colleagues for a blunt, combative style and for a perceived lack of concrete proposals during the leadership contest. She has emphasized the mistakes of her predecessors, arguing that her rhetoric was conservative in tone but that her approach to governing should remain pragmatic. She has insisted that her top priority is returning the Conservative Party to its roots. With a rising right wing in world politics, the path ahead for the new Tory leader is long and demanding as she seeks to steer the party toward a durable, credible course.