Born to Nigerian parents, the combative 44-year-old politician was elected with 57% of the votes in the party’s internal elections and has already promised to awaken the conservatives from their lethargy, who were humiliated last July after the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak lost the election resoundingly to Labor’s Keir Stamer. Those elections left the historic party with only 121 legislators, down from the 365 it had in 2019.
Married to Hamish Badenoch, a millionaire banker at Deutsche Bank, and mother of three children, on her shoulders is the difficult task of unifying a party that has been bruised since Brexit and Boris Johnson’s scandalous time in Downing Street.
But Badenoch’s arrival at the top of the party does not represent a milestone just because of his origin. In fact, the Tories had already trusted Sunak, the first Briton of Indian origin to become prime minister. Precisely, Badenoch prefers not to claim the fact of being Nigerian or being a woman. “I would like the color of our skin to be no more significant than the color of our hair or the color of our eyes,” he often says in interviews.
Her frontal style, her praise for the reduction of the State and her criticism of illegal immigration have made her the darling of the most right-wing sector of the party, who even speak of her as the “colored Thatcher”, the ‘Iron Lady’. ‘whom he never ceases to admire.
In low hours
The British have had five prime ministers in the last eight years. The current head of Government is the Labor Party (left) Keir Starmer.
But Badenoch is more than that. In the trend that Marine Le Pen in France and Giorgia Meloni in Italy have been setting, it has also established a battle against the so-called ‘woke culture’, or the progressivism that has put various demands for the LGBT community on the agenda. She describes herself as a feminist who is against “gender ideology” and has strongly opposed the self-identification of trans people.
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“Our country cannot be a dormitory for those who come to make money or a hotel for those who are passing through. “Those who choose to come are expected to share our values and contribute to our society.”
His statements have not been exempt from criticism either, such as when he pointed out that payments for maternity leave “were excessive” or when he criticized British colonialism by refusing to pay economic reparations for the countries that were plundered. “We need to tell both sides of the story,” he said.
From Lagos
Badenoch is not an African immigrant who came to Europe on a boat. Her parents – a doctor and a psychologist – were upper-middle class and traveled from Nigeria to London for fertility treatment. Kemi was born in Wimbledon and months later returned with his family to Lagos, where he lived until he was 16, although he spent some seasons in the United States.
Returning to London, he studied at private schools and was able to graduate in Computer Engineering at the University of Sussex, where he began his ‘Tory’ militancy. In fact, left-wing activists and their condescension about the African situation led her to go to the other political shore.
He joined the Conservative Party in 2005 and continued his professional career in the technology and financial sector, while studying law. Later she was digital director of “The Spectator” magazine, an influential media outlet for Tory militants. In 2015 she made her debut in British politics with a seat in the London Assembly and in 2017 she was elected to the House of Commons for the first time. From there, her career has been meteoric, being appointed Minister for International Trade in Liz Truss’ cabinet, and for Women and Equalities in the Sunak period.
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From the front and without filters
One of Badenoch’s main concerns is what he calls “the crisis of conservatism” and he did not hesitate to criticize Sunak for “governing from the left.”
“Those stuck-up, conceited, privileged middle-class Londoners drove me crazy when they talked about Africa in a self-righteous way. “They had no idea what they were talking about.”
However, he must also fight so that the essence of the ‘Tories’ does not end up being sucked into the Reform party, of Nigel Farage, one of the most representative of the British extreme right, who is attracting to its ranks many conservatives dissatisfied with the It derives from what the formation took in recent years and the poor performance of its prime ministers.
“The time has come to tell the truth, to defend our principles, to plan for the future, to renew our policies and our thoughts, and to offer the party and the country the new beginning that they both deserve. “The time has come to get to work,” said Badenoch. We will have to wait if he achieves his goal.
INTERVIEW
“She can bring the renewal that conservatives need”
Arturo Ponce Urquiza
Professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Anahuac University.
- Why does the election of Kemi Badenoch represent a milestone in British politics?
It’s very important because it’s about an Afro-British woman. In the country there have already been women who have governed, not only as prime ministers but also as queens, as a sign that women have taken positions of relevance to the nation’s politics. It is precisely thought that Badenoch can bring the renewal that the Conservative Party needs at a very crucial moment for Europe. She is a prepared woman who would seek to obtain the possibility of competing with the Labor Party for the first magistracy in the next parliamentary elections. With the arrival of Rishi Sunak the mold of Anglo-Saxon men in office had been broken, but the fact that she is an Afro-British woman is a milestone.
- Despite being the daughter of African immigrants, she represents the most conservative sector. Will she be able to win over voters in rural and anti-immigrant areas?
She is going to have to resort to a good working group to help her connect with those voters, something that Boris Johnson or Sunak did not achieve either. She is going to have to demonstrate that although she is not Saxon, she is an heir to British democratic values.
- She is said to be the ‘colored Thatcher’. Can you compare it?
What happens is that they want to generate a strong image. However, unlike Margaret Thatcher who did come from the working class, she has been in a more privileged background. And Thatcher was a woman who had to live through the Cold War and had to make crucial decisions in the country’s economy.
