Former business minister Kemi Badenoch replaces Rishi Sunak as leader of the British Conservative Party

The deputy and former Minister of Business Kemi Badenoch has been elected leader of the British Conservative Party after an election among the members of the formation, according to the result of the vote announced this Saturday.

Badenoch, 44, thus replaces the former prime minister Rishi Sunakwho decided to resign for the defeat suffered for the party in the British general election on July 4.

The new head of the ‘Tories’ defeated the other leadership candidate, the former Secretary of State for the Interior Robert Jenrick.

According to the result announced by Bob Black, president of the 1992 Committee – which groups conservative deputies without specific responsibilities -, Badenoch obtained a total of 53,806 votes and Jenrick 41,388 supportswhile the electoral participation was 72.8%.

After knowing the result, Badenoch thanked Rishi Sunak for his work at the head of the party and for other deputies who aspired to lead the party now in opposition.

After indicating that it has been “an enormous honor” to be elected leader, she specified that the party’s work is “hold this Labor Government to account“and prepare training for the future.

Badenoch acknowledged that the task ahead of the party is “tough but simple” and that another of its objectives is to recover the voters who did not support them in the elections.

He added that training has to admit that made “mistakes” and that now we must give the country a “new beginning.” He also added that “it is time to get down to work, It’s time to renew.”the policy pointed out in a short speech.

Badenoch and Jenrick underwent in recent weeks membership voteafter several candidates were eliminated in a series of votes held in recent months among conservative deputies.

Daughter of Nigerian parents

Regarding the biography of the new leader of the Conservative Party, Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch, her full name, is the daughter of Nigerian parents of wealthy middle class. The father was a general practitioner in his native country and his mother was a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Lagos.

As a teenager Kemi Badenoch moved to the UK to complete his secondary studies that would allow him to enter university – the so-called ‘Level A’ tests.

This gave him access to the english university of sussexwhere he studied Computer Engineering.

As a young man, Badenoch had a part-time job in a McDonald’s restaurant from Wimbledon, where she cleaned toilets and cooked hamburgers, as she herself has told about her youth.

Mother of three children, She has been married since 2012 with banker Hamish Badenoch, who has worked in Malawi, Nigeria and Kenya before working for Barclays and then Deutsche Bank.

Elected deputy in 2017

Between 2015 and 2017 was a member of the London Assembly. Since 2017 she has been an MP for the North West Essex constituency, in the south-east of England, under her married name, Badenoch.

Known for her strong opinions, combative and from the far right wing of the partyBadenoch has the former prime minister as its political heroine Margaret Thatcherwhom he admired while his childhood was spent in Nigeria, where he lived until he was 16 years old.

She held a series of ministerial posts during the terms of former Conservative prime ministers Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, who gave her the role of business minister.

He previously tried without success to win the leadership of the formation in 2022 after the resignation of Boris Johnsonbut fell in the internal votes among his party’s deputies.

She was Secretary of State for Local Government under Johnson, but resigned from the position in July 2022 amid the scandal over parties at the Downing Street residence during the pandemic.

Running again in 2024 for the leadership, Badenoch, in favor of Brexithas stressed that his party needs to “stop acting like Labor” to regain power.

Controversial maternity leave

It has also been the center of controversy by stating that payment for maternity leave in the UK it is “excessive” because it depends on the tax revenues brought in by working people. Faced with the controversy, Badenoch, who declares himself pro-companyshe later had to retract her statement by saying that she supported maternity leave.

At the recent congress of his party held in Birmingham, central England, he said that the important thing is to defend the “common sense” that has always characterized the party, which he described as the most successful in the history of political parties in the world.

“I think that the results what we got in the last elections They show that we are at an existential point. “There is a party on the right (Reform) that challenges us, people across the political spectrum don’t know what we represent,” he said.

“I am someone who communicates our values” and “that’s why I want to be a conservative leader“declared the new leader of the Conservative Party.

Their worst results

In these general elections on July 4, the conservatives lost 250 seats and They were left with only 121 of the 650 that make up the House of Commons (lower) of Parliament, which are elected by the single-member majority system.

This was the lowest level of support that the party has ever received, below the record of 1906, when the conservatives won 156 seats.