Kemi Badenoch became the Conservatives’ new leader and the first Black woman to a head a major British political party on Saturday, after winning a leadership contest on a promise to return the party to its founding principles.
Badenoch, 44, replaces former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and has pledged to lead the party through a period of renewal after its resounding defeat at Britain’s July election, saying it had veered towards the political centre by “governing from the left”.
On the right of the Conservative Party, Badenoch will likely back policies to shrink the state and challenge what she says is institutional left-wing thinking, saying it is time to defend the principles of free speech, free enterprise and free markets.
Badenoch becomes the Conservatives’ fifth leader since mid-2016 after winning 57% of party members’ votes in the final stage of a months-long contest that saw a field of six whittled down to two. She beat a former immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, who won 43% of votes.
Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed her victory, saying “the first Black leader of a Westminster party is a proud moment for our country”.
Badenoch herself has publicly said she prefers not to focus on her race.
Asked at the Conservative Party conference earlier this year how it would feel to become the first Black woman leader of the party, she said: “I am somebody who wants the colour of our skin to be no more significant than the colour of our hair or the colour of our eyes.”
Badenoch promised on Saturday to tackle problems in the party head-on.
“The time has come to tell the truth,” she told the audience at the final count of the leadership contest, promising to answer the main questions over how the Conservatives lost the July election so badly.
“It is time to get down to business, it is time to renew.”
With forthright views on everything from what she calls identity politics to the value of officials, Badenoch attracts both strong admirers and detractors. She is certain to shake up the Conservatives, who saw their contingent of lawmakers in the 650-seat parliament fall in July to 121 from 365 seats in 2019. Reuters
