Kemi Badenoch
Kemi Badenoch (pronounced bad-enoch), born 2 January 1980, is the current leader of the Conservative Party. She was first elected leader in October 2024 after her party had suffered their worst electoral defeat since 1906.
Badenoch is the third woman to lead the Conservatives. Her supporters see her as Margaret Thatcher reincarnated whilst her enemies refer to her as Theresa May. Her full name is OluKemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch with a family background in Nigeria. She is still quite relatively young. A diehard Conservative, Badenoch has admitted to hacking a Labour Party government minister's webpage before becoming an MP.
Background[edit]
Kemi was born in the UK but was brought up in Nigeria, the home country for her parents. This gave her a birthright inheritance to British citizenship, just before this was removed from all future migrants by the government of Margaret Thatcher. Therefore Kemi grew up in Lagos where her father was a doctor and her mother a university professor. She has two other siblings and claims that they had no running water or a regular supply of electricity.
UK bound[edit]
Kemi convinced her parents to allow her to go back to the UK. Though only 16 at the time, she had decided she needed to get out of Nigeria. Originally she thought about becoming a doctor or scientist but instead developed computer skills instead. By now a firm Conservative, Kemi claimed she was patronised by her (then) more leftist friends who had expected her to be more sympathetic to immigration.
Marriage[edit]
In 2012 Kemi married a banker called Hamish Badenoch and took his surname. She was now politically hungry. People thought she was Scottish and misheard 'Kemi' as either 'Kelly' or 'Cally'. This helped her to secure interviews with the Conservative Party selection committees. Since many of these were composed of older people who remembered when Nigeria was a colony of Britain, they considered Kemi would 'alienate' the racists who make up the core of the Tory support.
Politics[edit]
Badenoch got a her major political break when she was elected as MP in 2017. As a black Conservative her election was supposed to show that the Conservative party was more inclusive than their major rivals in the Labour Party. Badenoch was also a huge fan of Boris Johnson. That got her a job in government but outside the cabinet.
Badenoch made it clear she had a low opinion of many peop;e. Not just opposition MPs but ones on her own side. Badenoch was still not in the cabinet. She needed a dramatic boost. Badenoch would help topple Johnson. The blond chaos that was/is Johnson faced a government rebellion when he knowingly had promoted a bottom pincher as a whip.
First run[edit]
As Johnson's government collapsed, a replacement was searched for. Kemi went out and started to campaign for her upgrade as Prime Minister. She failed. Johnson's successor was Liz Truss. But it wasn't all bad news. Badenoch was promoted as a cabinet level minister as Secretary of State of Trade, Industry etc. etc.. When Truss crashed and burned after 49 day premiership, Badenoch kept her job under Rishi Sunak.
Second run[edit]
The Conservative Party was crushed in the 2024 General Election. Badenoch survived. With many other rivals either opting for retirement or going down to defeat, she emerged as a strong contender. Her main rival was the hitherto 'centrist' Robert Jenrick. She beat him by going far right than even he was prepared to go. Badenoch won.
The Divided right[edit]
Badenoch was therefore the fourth woman to lead the Conservatives. It didn't help. The party made no headway and were quickly overtaken by Nigel Farage's cult party Reform. Many Tories wanted to join Reform and create a new political alliance. Badenoch said Reform were really socialists.