UKAnalysis

Kemi Badenoch brings sass and confidence as leader of Conservative Party

London-born, Nigeria-raised daughter of middle-class immigrant parents is first black woman to lead major political party in Britain

New Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch: unconventional battler succeeds Rishi Sunak. Photograph: Andy Rain/Shutterstock
New Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch: unconventional battler succeeds Rishi Sunak. Photograph: Andy Rain/Shutterstock
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Mark Paul London Correspondent
Mon Nov 04 2024 - 17:24

The Conservative Party’s choice of the unorthodox and occasionally irascible politician Kemi Badenoch as its new leader is expected to be felt immediately on the spot where it counts the most in Westminster politics: across the dais in the House of Commons at noon each Wednesday.

The weekly prime minister’s questions (PMQs) slot is the theatrical centrepiece of the Westminster schedule. It is British politics distilled into a spectacle, a sometimes brutal gladiatorial exchange. The Tory and Labour leaders face off across the House.

Badenoch’s predecessor, former prime minister Rishi Sunak, was usually competent and quick-witted at PMQs when fending off the attacks of the former leader of the opposition, now leader of the government, Labour’s Keir Starmer. But their exchanges were rarely electric – both are conventional, cautious politicians.

All of this should change and change utterly with the elevation of the unconventional battler Badenoch as Tory leader.

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Her grit was clearly evident at the height of the Tory leadership battle during last month’s party conference in Birmingham. Under intense pressure at the time from the other contenders over her offhand remarks about maternity pay, Badenoch came out fighting one night at a champagne party hosted by the powerful backbench 1922 Committee.

Badenoch bustled her way up to the microphone at the event and launched a facetious broadside at the centrist James Cleverly, who was then jockeying for position as her main contender.

“James thinks he is the best,” Badenoch told the packed event. “Dream on, James. If you want change, vote for renewal, vote for Kemi.”

Barely a week later, Cleverly was voted out of the contest in a shock decision by MPs. Badenoch went into the final two against fellow right-winger Robert Jenrick, who ran a one-trick leadership pitch centred around pulling Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights to speed up deportations.

Jenrick, however, always looked like a typical Tory when measured alongside Badenoch, who becomes the first black woman to lead a major political party in Britain. She won convincingly, but not overwhelmingly, in the result announced on Saturday with 56 per cent of the vote.

Badenoch, a London-born, Nigeria-raised daughter of middle-class immigrant parents, brings a certain sass and confidence in combat to the leadership of a party that has struggled woefully for either for more than 18 months.

She demonstrated this yet again after her victory at the weekend, when she damned with faint praise Labour’s Rachel Reeves, the first woman in British history to be appointed chancellor of the exchequer. Reeves, Badenoch sniffed, had broken only a “very, very low glass ceiling”. Badenoch is the fourth woman to have led the Tory party.

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Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said at the weekend that Badenoch was not yet the finished article as a potential future prime minister, although he said she was not yet supposed to be. Winning the leadership was one thing. Her next wholly separate job, he suggested, was to show enough verve in the role to convince British voters to give her a chance.

“I am supporting Kemi because I believe she has the right attributes: integrity, courage and the ability to grow in stature as opposition leader,” he said in a Daily Telegraph leader.

When Duncan Smith was Tory leader just over two decades ago, he was eventually forced out of the role by rebellion and scheming among his shadow cabinet members and backbenchers. Already, there are whispers that Badenoch, with her combative approach, may have to weather some of the same scheming.

It is notable, for example, that Cleverly has decided to rejoin the backbenches rather than serve in Badenoch’s shadow cabinet. Might he take another shot at the leadership if she comes under pressure? Either way, Badenoch will be sure to have plenty to say to those who doubt her, beginning on Wednesday at PMQs.