Kemi Badenoch

Kemi Badenoch (born January 2, 1980, Wimbledon, London, England) is the leader of the Conservative Party (byname the Tories) of the United Kingdom and the first Black person to lead the party. She has established herself as a blunt-spoken parliamentarian and critic of identity politics and “woke” ideology. As Tory leader, she serves as leader of the opposition in Keir Starmer’s Labour government.

Early years

Badenoch was born in Wimbledon, London, to parents of Nigerian origin. She has two siblings. Her father, Femi, was a physician, and her mother, Feyi, was a physiology professor. Badenoch spent some of her childhood in Lagos, where the family endured hardships and declining fortunes amid political instability. In her maiden speech in Parliament, Badenoch recounted power outages that forced her to do homework by candlelight and having to retrieve water from a well when the tap water stopped flowing.

When she was 16, Badenoch returned to the United Kingdom with £100 to complete her studies, doing so while working at a McDonald’s restaurant. She enrolled at the University of Sussex, studying computer systems engineering. She then worked as a software engineer while earning a part-time law degree from Birkbeck, University of London. She also worked for nine years as an analyst in the financial services sector. Badenoch later told The Times that her college years helped shape her conservative politics, recalling “snotty, middle-class north Londoners” who had misguided ideas of how to help people in Africa. “These stupid lefty white kids didn’t know what they were talking about,” she said.

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.

SIGN UP

By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

She is married to former Conservative councilor and banker Hamish Badenoch, with whom she has three children.

Political career

Kemi Badenoch joined the Conservative Party in 2005. She lost her first race for British Parliament, for the Dulwich and West Norwood constituency in London, in 2010, finishing third behind the Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates. She returned to her career, making a comeback to politics after winning a seat in the London Assembly in 2015. She retained her seat in 2016, the year she expressed her pro-Brexit views in the referendum of the same name.

Badenoch was first elected to Parliament in 2017, winning the Saffron Walden seat in East England with about 62 percent of the vote. In her first speech to that body, Badenoch quoted both Woody Allen and Edmund Burke. She was reelected to the seat in 2019.

Badenoch held several government positions during Boris Johnson’s prime ministership from 2019 to 2022, including parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Education, exchequer secretary to the Treasury, minister of state for equalities, and minister of state at the Department for Leveling Up, Housing and Communities. She made waves on several occasions. For example, in 2021 Vice World News reported on a 2018 recording of Badenoch mocking trans rights issues; a government spokesperson said the quote was taken out of context. In 2022 she tweeted that a government online safety bill would be overhauled if she was prime minister, reasoning, “We should not be legislating for hurt feelings.”

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE

That same year she was one of a host of ministers to quit the government in the wake of ethics scandals that led to Johnson’s forced resignation. Badenoch mounted a surprise run for party leader against more well-known politicians, making it to the final four. After Johnson’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, replaced him as prime minister, Badenoch served as international trade secretary, but it turned out to be a short-lived gig. Truss lasted just 49 days, the shortest tenure in British history.

Truss was succeeded by Rishi Sunak; during Sunak’s tenure, Badenoch again served in several positions, including minister for women and equalities for the Equality Hub, secretary of state for international trade, president of the Board of Trade, and secretary of state for the Department for Business and Trade.

Leader of the Conservative Party

The Labour Party under Starmer won the general election in July 2024, ending 14 years of Conservative rule. The Conservatives lost 251 seats from the 2019 election, ending up with only 121 seats—their worst result. Badenoch won her seat (North West Essex) but with only 35 percent of votes. She was named shadow minister for leveling up, housing, and communities in Sunak’s shadow cabinet.

Also in 2024 Badenoch ran for party leadership again. She emphasized how her experience growing up in chaos in Nigeria made her appreciate life in Britain. “I don’t take what we have in this country for granted,” she told the BBC. “I meet a lot of people who assume that things are good here because things are good here and they always will be. They don’t realize just how much work and sacrifice was required in order to get that.” Some of her right-wing stances included opposing gender-neutral bathrooms as well as Britain’s plans to reduce carbon emissions. Badenoch generated some criticism during the campaign by declaring, “Not all cultures are equally valid.” She adopted a hard-line stance on reducing immigration, saying, “Numbers matter but culture matters more.” Badenoch called herself “Labour’s worst nightmare because they can’t portray me as prejudiced.”

Badenoch won the 2024 Conservative Party election, defeating Robert Jenrick, also a former cabinet member, winning about 56 percent of votes in the final round of voting. She thus became the first Black person to lead the party. The win made her the leader of the opposition; she soon appointed her shadow cabinet. In the 2025 local elections in England, seen as Badenoch’s first leadership test after taking over the party, the Tories lost more than 650 seats, coming up third behind Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats.