Ms Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch, popularly known as Kemi Badenoch, the Nigeria-born leader of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, was born on January 2, 1980.
Ms Badenoch’s father, Mr Femi Adegoke, is a general practitioner while her mother, Ms Feyi Adegoke, is a professor of Physiology. Kemi lived in Lagos and later in the United States where her mother lectured.
Ms Badenoch was in Nigeria as a teenager during the miliatry era. She returned to the UK at the age of 16 to live with her mother’s friend during the regime of the maximum leader, General Sani Abacha.
Later in the UK, Badenoch studied Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex and subsequently completed a Master of Engineering in 2003.
Between 2003 and 2006, Bademoch worked within the IT sector, first as a software engineer at Logica (later CGI Group). She further read Law while working there, graduating in 2009 with Bachelor of Laws at Birkbeck, University of London.
Her political career
Ms Badenoch joined the Consevative Party in 2005 at the age of 25. She contested a legislative election in 2010 but came third.
In 2012, Ms Badenoch stood for another legislative election in London but was not elected. She was in support of Brexit, which means the exit of the UK from the European Union, in 2016 .
In 2017, Ms Badenoch was shortlisted as the Conservative Party candidate for the Hampstead and Kilburn but was unsuccessful. She was later selected for the same election as the Conservative candidate for Saffron Walden, for which she won.
In the December 2019 general election, she was re-elected, even with an increased majority. In 2020, she later served as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister of Equalities) in the Department of International Trade under Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
She was promoted to the position of Minister of State for Equalities and also became Minister of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. She resigned in 2022 in a joint statement with fellow ministers.
Following Johnson’s resignation, Ms Badenoch launched a bid to succeed him as Conservative Party leader, but she was eliminated in the fourth round of voting. She however did not endorse another candidate like other Conservative Party contestants.
In September 2022, Liz Truss became the UK prime minister and appointed Ms Badenoch to her cabinet as Secretary of State for International Trade. After Truss’ resignation the following month, Badenoch endorsed Rishi Sunak, who later became the prime minister. Sunak retained her as Secretary of State for International Trade upon becoming the Prime Minister.
In a February 2023 cabinet reshuffle, she was appointed first Secretary of State at the newly created Department for Business and Trade.
Tory Party leadership
On November 2, 2024, Ms Badenoch, the North West Essex MP, received 53,806 votes to beat her rival, Mr Robert Jenrick, who got 41,388 votes.
In her acceptance speech, Badenoch said the task before the Conservative Party was tough but simple.
“Our first responsibility as His Majesty’s loyal Opposition is to hold this Labour Government to account. Our second is no less important. It is to prepare over the course of the next few years for government, to ensure that by the time of the next election, we have not just a clear set of Conservative pledges that appeal to the British people, but a clear plan for how to implement them, a clear plan to change this country by changing the way that government works.
“The Prime Minister is discovering all too late the perils of not having such a plan. That huge job begins today. It will seek to involve all of our colleagues in Parliament, in the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd, our friends in Northern Ireland, as well as councillors and party members.
“But this is not just about the Conservative Party, it is about the people we want to bring back to the Conservative Party, it is about the people we need to bring into the Conservative Party.
“Our party is critical to the success of our country, but to be heard we have to be honest – honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip.
“The time has come to tell the truth. The time has come to tell the truth, to stand up for our principles, to plan for our future, to reset our politics and our thinking, and to give our party, and our country, the new start that they deserve. It is time to get down to business, it is time to renew.”
