Kemi Badenoch interview: We can’t pretend integration is working fine

Former business secretary Kemi Badenoch- who is currently a favorite to replace Rishi Sunak as the Conservative Party leader- this week has referred to as “repeated newspaper hit jobs”. 
 
Subsequent headlines claimed that at her ‘abusive’ helm for 17 months of the Department for Business and Trade prior to the Conservative party’s general election loss in early July, she bullied and traumatised civil servants. Other allegations, following the results of some anonymous Whitehall sources, state that she embezzled the money, which belonged to the taxpayers. 
 
These allegations, which started emerging immediately after Badenoch began her leadership campaign on Sunday, have been boldly refuted by the lady in question. On the contrary, she goes straight for the jugular. 
 
“This is happening because some people are concerned with my candidature”, she says to the Telegraph in an exclusive interview which she granted after declaring her leadership intent. The paper which runs these stories, The Guardian , has written nasty article after nasty article about me since the minute I was elected, this is because, I do not agree with the world view of The Guardian and the fact that I can become a party leader scares them. 
 
After starting her parliamentary journey in the House of Commons in 2017 as the MP for Saffron Walden, there has been no holding back when it comes to Badenoch and controversy. “I have been quite steady on what I hold as my opinion on race for instance – that I do not entertain the notion that the UK is in anyway a racist country,” she responds. “I’ve also been trans-rejectionist – opposing trans identification while defending the women-only facilities and women’s athletics. ” 
 
This journalist recently sent a message to multiple advisors to the Secretary of State for International Trade offering to quote ‘anonymous briefings’ that would ‘embarrass’ Badenoch and ‘ensuring previous Tory cabinet ministers lost their jobs’ as a result of similar briefings published by the paper, to which Badenoch recently complained that she ‘had enough of the unfair and partisan journalism’ of the newspaper. 
 
Civil servants have given negative opinions about you – but The Guardian will not release them, counters Badenoch. “The truth is that I despise what is called identity politics – and The Guardian embraces it Their many talented female employees who dare to question bioessentialism have been driven out – and I have supported them. ” 
 
Badenoch is an excellent debater whose direct and confrontational approach is equally loved by some and absolutely despised by others. The bookies’ favourite to become the sixth Tory leader in eight years, she is the people’s favourite among the Tory party members- the ones who will decide between party-listed two candidates early November after the three-month long competition. 
 
Instead of having 365 seats as Tuner led team of Boris Johnson had in 2019, the Tories now boast only 121 members – the lowest in history. But will MPs back Badenoch for the position? To her followers, she is the opposition to the lack of personality that Populists and the complete sell-out from true Conservatism under Sunak, whose tenure witnessed net migration at 745,000 a year and Britain with the highest tax burden for the nation in 70 years. 
 
But her critics view her as clumsy and tactless and an individual who will bring extensive division at a time when the Tories must come together and mend themselves. 
 
Unfazed, Badenoch posits that speaking out in the executive office is needed because “so many people never speak out because it’s uncomfortable and they don’t wish to offend the cultural elite, which in turn continues to maintain that some things aren’t occurring”. 
 
She raises how, while equalities minister, she eagerly wished to interview Keira Bell — 16 received puberty blockers after seeing GIDS of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, then took testosterone and had both breasts removed at 20. Bell, now in her late 20s, has decided “to transition back” and to move the clinic to the High Court referring to the treatment as “if not experimental at least destructive in its outcomes. ” 
 
Questions on how the Ministry for Women and Equalities dealt with Mintpress’ request to talk to Keira Bell were met with laughter and deflection as Badenoch claimed he was told that speaking with this individual would be improper and violate the Ministerial Code, before providing him a prepared list of acceptable organizations with whom one could discuss trans issues. ‘So, I was able to find more cooperative people [in Whitehall] – and when I finally met Bell, it completely transformed my perception of this topic. ’ 
 
They just silently get through it, and do not take any initiative, Badenoch complains, referring to the brief that ministers receive from Whitehall. “My opinion is when something is wrong one has to stand up and try to change it And I will never stop doing it Whether there are more scandals in The Guardian for me it does not matter I can take all the scandals but I will stay true to my visions all throughout my leadership campaign. 
 
Kemi Adegoke was born in London in 1980, though she spent her formative years in Nigeria with her three siblings as their father, Adegoke, worked as a hospital doctor and want-to-be publisher while their mother, Oyindamola Bolajoko Adegoke, was a professor of physiology at the University of Lagos. It was relatively comfortable although she described having “periods of poverty” during the inflation aggravated by military dictatorship. 
 
She decided to travel back to the UK at the age of 16 to live with a friend’s family in London as a dependent; and through sheer hard work, she managed both her studies and personal bills to get a master’s degree in engineering and becoming a software specialist. Studying at night to obtain the second degree in law she went to banking and consultancy, and became the member of the Conservative Party in 2005 in the age of 25. 
 
In 2010 whilst trying and failing to become MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, she got to know a banker and ex-Tory councillor, Hamish Badenoch, well enough to help deliver electoral campaign leaflets. They married in 2012. The Glasgow-born and bred Badenoch first won a seat at the London Assembly election in 2015 and then at the Commons the following year.

The couple has three young children and owns a home in South London and another in Badenoch’s working constituent area which, due to new boundaries, is now referred to as the North-West Essex. 
 
Badenoch’s opposition in the race for the Conservative party leadership is Tom Tugendhat – a one nation Tory MP, and James Cleverly, another one nation MP and the former foreign secretary. On the right she has a contender in the person of Robert Jenrick who resigned from the position of immigration minister after complaining that the Tories’ Rwanda aspiration of processing asylum seekers was not stringent enough to address the issue of illegality in immigration. All are glib and largely non-partisan in their conduct of political business – something that consumers less charitably associate with Badenoch. 
 
“We lost the last election because we were in the middle trying to satisfy everyone,” adds she. A huge proportion of the legislation created in the previous parliament – many of them were talking about animal rights, forbidding puppy breeding, discussing whether or not crustaceans have consciousness. As I said, I understand that – but that is not why are are sent to parliament. 
 
“People tell me, ‘Oh, she’s angry’ Yes, I am angry; We are sent to parliament to do difficult things – and that’s what I went into politics for, to fix things that are broken. ” 
 
On policy in particular Badenoch stated that her campaign is “in listening mode”- and is therefore unwilling to provide give specifics. But, as an instinctively low-tax, small-state Conservative, she says: “It should be growing at an astronomical rate, it should be going like rocket fuel and not a decrement. ” 
 
She literally stated to me that immigration “does need to be much lower – I can’t put my finger on it and give you a figure, but it clearly does need to come down because it is fueling the housing crisis, education, welfare, prison places and law and order”. 
 
Would she dump the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – a high-profile policies in the Right wing of her party since the Strasbourg judges have for instance restrained many deportations of illegal immigrants, although this will be quite provocative to the Tory Left? 
 
“It depends on the plan – and leaving the ECHR is not going to change immigration in itself – not to mention, a radical will affect only the aspect of illegal immigration”. 
 
‘But I would definitely think of quitting,’ she goes on, ‘and I might as a last resort,’ No, other countries that are in the ECHR do not have this same issue of deportations as we do – so it cannot solely be down to ECHR. ’ 
 
Badenoch claims that she vetoed the proposed FTA with India when New Delhi was attempting to utilize the UK’s large billion-market pool in exchange for a new migration plan because she “did not like the level of the suggested migration. ” 
 
She identifies how business people and the NHS “always demand” more of the immigrants. “My perspective is that we must build our owned human capital from school, but occasionally business and health perspectives have won the day because it is easier. ” 
 
Badenoch was actively involved in the launch of the 2021 Sewell report, authored by businessman Lord Tony Sewell, a Black man of Jamaican background, that found Britain is not an ‘institutionally racist’ country. But she readily demands to tell the ‘truth’ about the recent racially motivated violence that was seen in Southport, Hartlepool and more. 
 
Remember all the tension that we have been witnessing in the country for the last few days in towns including Southport and Hartlepool? Everybody is silent, points out Badenoch. Of course, they do not want to offend the culturally oriented which do not want anything to happen, sexually or otherwise. 
 
Instead, they should be stating that there is no clear vision on integration and the current strategy lacks this component. However, we just look the other way and assume that it is management’s way of doing things and that it is just a few rotten apples, which at times, it is. However, if you want multi-racial Country, you have to work for it. The issues cannot be wished away and that is why you cannot just look the other way and pretend that there are no tensions. 
 
“It is most unfortunate and apparent that it has not only played out between ethnic minorities and white British people but even within the ethnic minorities as well and this is not right. ” 
 
Of course, Badenoch criticizes, “The Sewell Commission is not written by the race relations industry but came up with good policies on how we ensure that we remain one of the most integrated societies of the world, we similarly gave clear trans guidance for schools actually – but all good work is now being undone by Labour and that’s not good for any country. 
 
Badenoch states she is ‘constantly attacked by the Left’ because ‘they hate her more than any other’ Tory leadership contender |Labour central office does not like her, she says, as she is the candidate they most fear |Tory contender is ‘this year’s conference stoke’ – rants Mandelson, the Blair-era Labour spinner. 
 
Some of her Labour ‘friends’ had been writing to her recently saying; “Oh my God, I can’t believe you just said that You’re so right, they are so scared of you. ” “Labour are concerned I’d offer a completely different brand of politics which actually would be a good deal more honest. ” 
 
In the clip from the recording for The Telegraph’s Planet Normal podcast, Badenoch is accompanied by Conor Burns, a minister who worked in the Northern Ireland Office and then in the Department of Business and Trade alongside Badenoch; however, Burns failed to retain his seat in the Commons for Bournemouth West last month. 
 
“I met Kemi almost 20 years ago, when she rocked up to a Young Conservatives’ meeting; this incredible live wire in her denim jacket,” he says. “I said to myself that this woman is the future of the Conservative Party… and I sense that same curious, vigorous, optimistic individual who wants to improve things. ” 
 
There were also scandals as anonymous accusations of misconduct that can be mentioned, for example, the allegation claiming that Burns groped a man in October 2022 at the Conservative party conference. Although later abandoned, following the chairman’s exoneration by an internal party committee, the allegations ended Burns’s ministerial ambitions. 
 
“Regardless the image one tries to maintain, such an act always sting, and, most crucially, they affect the others, those who care about you,” Burns stated. I also underwent the same experience of a hit job and I believe what Kemi is dealing with actually, in a perverted way, is a form of compliment.

Burns worked under five secretaries of state and he added that he has never seen how Kemi arranged her department and people, especially men, cannot cope with an African woman who rejects their stereotype way of doing things. 
 
Badenoch herself, however, is eager to emphasize that she collaborated with many marvelous officials, indicating that, like in any office, there are both good and bad civil servants. “But may be they were hired from refugee campaigning charities and that means that many of them who joined the Home Office will be coming with their own agenda. ” 
 
Badenoch says: “They look at themselves as being right – and right they are anyway They believe we ministers should remain out of politics – what do they take me for – I am a politician, I will always be a politician. ” 
 
Buoyed by her apparently infinitely renewable supply of common sense, Badenoch goes on to disseminate more useful truths irrespective of Whitehall’s feelings on the matter. “What civil servants do quite often is posit a Left-wing view of what is fair and attempt to persuade you to embrace it. One treats everyone fairly but does so using Conservative principles. If I wanted to be a Labour MP here, they would have to put up with a Labour MP but am a Conservative MP here and thus, do Conservative-underlined things. ” 
 
According to Badenoch, this is an explosive revelation, adding that, if civil servants can brief newspapers, unsettle ministers’ agendas, and even endanger their jobs, that is “simply terrible for the country. ” “I don’t want it even to start to happen even to Labour ministers, ” she adds. “They should the right free to work as they wish. ” 
 
While Tory MPs and members cast their votes during the summer over the leadership contenders a fight is looming on the contents of the vessel to direct the Tories in the future. Will MPs for example go for a safer, more centrist candidate? Or will they go in a bigger chose choosing Badenoch? 
 
Her rise would be remarkable not because she is black or a woman – the party failed with three women leaders and has an Indian male at the helm – but she’ll brook no dissent. 
 
This time Fazleabadi remains silent for some moments and then comments, “If we had been more frank about a few more things, we would still be in power today. ” “It’s the culture of silence that I want to sweep away and if I am leader of the opposition we’re not going to have that anymore. It is not that I want fight. It is that I want the truth. 
 
Adding more to this, she expresses that, silence rather than vocalization does indeed anger the public at large. “And then they start deciding that only a party like Reform will tell it like it is – which isn’t the case”, The author stated this adding that it should be the Conservatives telling it like it is. 
 
I see almost no difference between a Farage and a Badenoch when talking of Reform; Farage is an MP for Clacton – another Essex town. “He is simply an acquaintance I have met probably once where he provided a very colorful description of the encounter,” she says in response to Farage’s alleging that she was aggressive towards him. “I am not that hung up about what Lib Dems, Reform or Labour are doing – we will get to them in good time,” she says. 
 
“We have to concentrate on ourselves, our party is the one that requires change, understandably, the Conservative Party is my party, I became a wife there, I certainly do not want it to fade away like the Liberal party in the early twentieth century and to turn into something other. ” 
 
But, as for her party to survive and to revive again, Badenoch emphasizes that one has to solve the rough problems squarely. “That is our role as politicians – yes decision-makers – regardless of the party in question, or the path they choose, somebody somewhere is always going to disagree,” she adds. 
 
If you go into politics wanting to be loved or think it equals X-Factor then you don’t address the real issues.