Kemi Badenoch new leader of the British Conservatives, who are taking a turn to the right

Kemi Badenoch became the new leader of the British Conservative Party on Saturday, November 2, now in opposition in the United Kingdom, after a vote by its activists who chose this forty-year-old defender of a return to “true conservatism” and a strict immigration policy.

After three months of campaigning, this fierce « antiwoke », who was considered the favorite of the election, was elected with nearly 57% of the votes, facing Robert Jenrick, also positioned to the right of the party. She thus becomes the first black woman to lead one of the main political parties in the United Kingdom.

“The time has come to tell the truth, to stand up for our principles, to plan for our future, to rethink our politics and thinking, and to give our party and our country the fresh start they deserve.”declared Kemi Badenoch just after the announcement of his victory.

Engineer by training aged 44, M^me Badenoch was born in the United Kingdom to parents of Nigerian origin and grew up in the African country before returning to England at 16. An MP since 2017, she held several secondary ministerial positions from 2019 under Prime Minister Boris Johnson, before being promoted by his successors Liz Truss then Rishi Sunak, for whom she was trade minister. She had already tried, without success, to take the head of the party in 2022.

M^me Badenoch will have a lot to do to revive the largely weakened Tories. The election for the leadership of the party was called after the announcement of Mr. Sunak's resignation in the wake of the historic electoral defeat of the Conservatives in the legislative elections on July 4. With 121 elected officials, the party lost two thirds of its deputies in the House of Commons.

Voters sanctioned the Tories after fourteen years in power marked by Brexit, so many believe that it has not been the promised success, an austerity policy which has impoverished public services and scandals under the former prime minister. Minister Boris Johnson.

But many people question Kemi Badenoch's ability to unify and rebuild a very divided party and the relevance of the turn to the right that she seems to want to make it take. She arrives at the head of the Tories with a reputation as an outspoken go-getter, who appeals to the activist base but sometimes raises hackles even in her own camp.

“All cultures are not equal”

During her campaign, she advocated a return to “true conservatism” without expanding much on his program. After a legislative election marked by the rise to power of the far-right Reform UK party, the campaign was dominated by the subject of immigration. Kemi Badenoch has made it one of her priorities, stating in particular that she “wasn’t good” for the country and “not all cultures are equal” to justify a more targeted migration policy, an exit which caused controversy.

During the last Conservative Party conference, she shocked by suggesting that maternity leave pay was « excessive » or by estimating that 10% of administration officials were so bad that they “should be in prison”.

Very critical of the “identity politics” consisting of asserting the specific rights of certain communities, Kemi Badenoch accused his party of having shown itself increasingly « liberal » on societal issues such as gender. She also said to herself “skeptical” on the carbon neutrality objective that the United Kingdom has set for itself.

According to curator Michael Ashcroft, author of a biography on the new leader, she “radicalized” to the right of the party when she was at university, in contact with student activists whom she described “metropolitan elite in the making, spoiled, privileged and pretentious”.