After weeks of anticipation, we now have a new leader of the Conservative Party. As Rishi Sunak returns to the back benches, Kemi Badenoch takes the reins as the leader of the Conservatives and the opposition. Her role now is to hold Labour accountable and to rebuild the Conservative Party. Can she do it?
Badenoch’s win as the first Black woman to lead a major UK political party marks a significant milestone for British politics, reflecting the increasing diversity of the past two decades. But setting that accomplishment aside, how will the bright young face of Toryism face up to the monumental task ahead of her? The final two choices were, after all, dire. It was hardly the cream of conservatism that was offered to the members. For the first time, I did not vote.
Born Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke in London in 1980, Kemi Badenoch spent much of her childhood in Nigeria, which she credits with shaping her political views. Upon returning to the United Kingdom at the age of 16, she worked part-time at McDonald’s, eventually making her way to studying computer systems engineering at the University of Sussex and later law at Birkbeck.
Badenoch joined the Conservative Party in 2005, immediately running for, and being rejected from, public office. Her persistence paid off when she was elected to the London Assembly a decade later in 2015. During her time in the Assembly, she focused on housing, transport, and education. In 2017, she was elected as the MP for Saffron Walden, becoming one of the youngest MPs in the House of Commons. Since then, she has held several ministerial roles, including Minister of State for Equalities, Secretary of State for International Trade, and Secretary of State for Business and Trade, on her stratospheric rise to the top of the remnants of the natural party of government.
Badenoch is known for being vociferous at the least. She described the partygate scandal as “overblown” and criticised the government for fining people for everyday activities during lockdown. She has admitted that “a lot of Brexit has not been a success” and criticised the UK for being too scared to reap the benefits of leaving the EU. While she believes in the UK’s potential to thrive independently, I share her view that, in a volatile post-Brexit world, a “Global Britain” with partnerships is essential for Britain’s security and economic stability.
Badenoch’s career has not been without controversy. In 2018, she admitted to hacking into a Labour MP’s website as a prank. Though it may sound harmless, this incident raised questions about her judgement and professionalism, impressions unaided by her reputation for being able to start a fight in an empty room. Her stance against teaching what she understands to be critical race theory in schools sparked a furore across the political spectrum, winning her plaudits on her own side in the form of Conservative Home’s speech of the year.
Badenoch faced backlash for her response to a journalist’s inquiry about her absence in a COVID-19 vaccine promotion video. She publicly tweeted the journalist’s questions and accused her of inventing claims, which led to the journalist receiving online abuse. Endangering and lambasting journalists is not in the slightest a good look for a leader who will need to woo them no end if she is to return her party to power. Leaked recordings from 2018 revealed Badenoch referring to trans women as “men” and expressing concerns about men using women’s bathrooms. Her gender critical stance on trans issues has hardened since then, crystallising in the form of opposition to allowing transgender women from accessing single-sex female spaces.
Badenoch’s tendency to court and captivate the headlines will serve her and the conservative cause well in opposition. Her magnetism, fuelled by a focus on hot button issues rather than long-term policy considerations, could turn out to be a vice or a virtue. She will, in my view, not survive until the next election, crushed under the weight of the populist attention she is insatiably drawn to. A return to sensible, one-nation conservatism - to compassion, opportunity, and realism - is sorely needed by the Conservative party, however unlikely that may be.
Image: Flickr/UKinUSA
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