Kemi Badenoch, 44, was appointed on Saturday November 2 as the new leader of the British Conservative Party, now in opposition, to succeed former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the end of a campaign dominated by the subject of immigration.
Candidate « anti-woke » self-proclaimed, the forty-year-old won the activists’ vote against the other finalist Robert Jenrick, also a member of the right wing of the party. During the campaign the two finalists widely denounced the tax increases of the ruling Labor Party, and displayed a very critical speech on immigration and the fight against global warming. She said to herself “skeptical” on the carbon neutrality objective that the United Kingdom has set for itself.
“All cultures are not equal”
Born in the United Kingdom to parents of Nigerian origin and raised in this African country, Kemi Badenoch placed her campaign under the theme of “renewal” and advocates a return to “true conservatism”accusing his party of having shown itself more and more « liberal » on societal issues such as gender.
Her direct, even frontal, style has sometimes created controversy, as when she asserted that “not all cultures are equal” to defend his desire to drastically reduce immigration.
This engineer by training, elected to Parliament since 2017 and former Minister of Enterprise and Trade in Rishi Sunak’s government, was running for the second time at the head of the Conservative Party, after finishing in fourth position in 2022.
“The time has come to tell the truth, to stand up for our principles, to plan for our future, to rethink our politics and thinking, and to give our party and our country the fresh start they deserve.”declared Kemi Badenoch just after the announcement of his victory.
After her election, Kemi Badenoch becomes, in fact, the leader of the opposition and will now face Labor Keir Starmer every Wednesday lunchtime in the House of Commons for the traditional questions to the Prime Minister. However, the conservative party is now in a weak position, with only 121 deputies, two thirds less than during the previous legislature.
Her priority will be to rebuild the party after its crushing defeat, after 14 years in power, last July, in the legislative elections. Many Conservative Party voters turned in the last elections to the centrist LibDem or the far-right Reform UK party, led by former Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage.