The first Black woman to lead a major U.K. political party, Kemi Badenoch is an upbeat and outspoken libertarian who thinks the British state is broken 鈥 and that she's the one to fix it with smaller government and radical new ideas.
The new leader of Britain鈥檚 right-of-center Conservative Party was born Olukemi Adegoke in London in 1980 to well-off Nigerian parents 鈥 a doctor and an academic 鈥 and spent much of her childhood in the West African country.
She has said that the experience of Nigeria鈥檚 economic and social upheavals shaped her political outlook.
鈥淚 grew up somewhere where the lights didn鈥檛 come on, where we ran out of fuel frequently despite being an oil-producing country,鈥 Badenoch told the BBC last week.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 take what we have in this country for granted,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 meet a lot of people who assume that things are good here because things are good here and they always will be. They don鈥檛 realize just how much work and sacrifice was required in order to get that.鈥
Returning to the U.K. aged 16 during a period of turmoil in Nigeria, she worked part-time at McDonalds while completing school, then studied computer systems engineering at the University of Sussex. She later got a law degree and worked in financial services.
In 2012, she married banker Hamish Badenoch, with whom she has three children.
She was elected to the London Assembly in 2015 and to Parliament in 2017. She held a series of government posts in the 2019-22 government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, before becoming part of a mass ministerial exodus in July 2022 over a series of ethics scandals that triggered Johnson鈥檚 downfall.
Badenoch ran unsuccessfully to succeed Johnson, boosting her profile in the process. She was appointed trade secretary in the 49-day government of Prime Minister Liz Truss, and business secretary under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
She held onto her seat in Parliament in , which saw the Labour Party win a huge majority and the Conservatives reduced to 121 lawmakers in the 650-seat House of Commons.
Like many Conservatives, Badenoch idolizes Margaret Thatcher, the party鈥檚 first female leader, who transformed Britain with her free-market policies in the 1980s. Citing her engineering background as evidence she鈥檚 a problem-solver, she depicts herself as a disruptor, arguing for a low-tax, free-market economy and pledging to 鈥渞ewire, reboot and reprogram鈥 the British state.
A critic of multiculturalism and self-proclaimed enemy of wokeness, Badenoch is an opponent of 鈥渋dentity politics,鈥 gender-neutral bathrooms and government plans to reduce U.K. carbon emissions.
Supporters think her charismatic, outspoken style is just what the Conservative Party needs to come back from its worst-ever election defeat. During her leadership campaign, her backers wore T-shirts urging: 鈥淏e more Kemi.鈥
Critics say Badenoch has clashed with colleagues and civil servants and has a tendency to make rash statements and provoke unnecessary fights. During the leadership campaign she drew criticism for saying that 鈥渘ot all cultures are equally valid,鈥 and for suggesting that maternity pay was excessive 鈥 though she later backtracked on that claim.
鈥淚 do speak my mind,鈥 she told the BBC. 鈥淎nd I tell the truth.鈥
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