As the Conservative Party of Britain attempts to recover from a catastrophic election loss that ended 14 years in office, the party chose outspoken MP Kemi Badenoch as its new head.
Nearly 100,000 Conservatives voted for Badenoch (pronounced BADE-enock), the first black woman to take charge of a major British political party, over Robert Jenrick, her opponent.
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Jenrick received 41,388 votes, while she received 53,806 in the party members’ online and postal poll. Badenoch succeeds former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who in July guided the Conservatives to their worst electoral outcome since 1832.
The difficult task facing the new leader is to try to rebuild the party’s image following years of economic turmoil, scandal, and division; criticize Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s policies on important issues like immigration and the economy; and put the Conservatives back in power at the next election, which is scheduled for 2029.
“The task that stands before us is tough but simple,” speaking to a packed house of Conservative legislators, workers, and journalists in London, Badenoch declared triumph. According to her, the party’s duties included creating promises and a governing strategy as well as holding the Labor administration responsible.
Regarding the party’s crushing defeat in the election, she stated “We have to be honest — honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip.”
Badenoch stated, “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.”
Born in London to Nigerian parents, Badenoch spent a large portion of her early years in the West African nation before working as a corporate secretary in Sunak’s administration.
By advocating for a free-market, low-tax economy and promising to “rewire, reboot, and reprogram” the British government, the 44-year-old former software engineer positions herself as a disruptor. She has campaigned for less immigration and criticized multiculturalism, just like her opponent Jenrick, but she hasn’t called on Britain to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.
Badenoch is an outspoken opponent of wokeness who opposes gender-neutral restrooms, identity politics, and government initiatives to lower carbon emissions in the UK. She faced backlash during the leadership race for claiming that “not all cultures are equally valid” and for implying that maternity pay was exorbitant.
