Who is Kemi Badenoch?

Kemi Badenoch was the secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy as well as the minister for women and equalities during Rishi Sunak’s administration and is now among the favourites to succeed the leader of the conservatives. 
 
Mr Turner is a confirmed Brexiteer, and an opponent of what he terms ‘gender ideology. ’ He represents North West Essex, and sits firmly on the Right of the Tory Party. 
 
This is the second attempt of Mrs Badenoch in the race of leadership of the party after she contested for the position when Boris Johnson was up for it in summer of 2020. 
 
What does the lady support or fight for? 
 
Mrs Badenoch launched her bid in July by declaring that capitalism is not a ‘dirty word,’ and placed her free-market principles at the center of her campaign. 
 
The shadow housing secretary would like to see a smaller state, and has stated on the record that “sovereignty” and leaving the EU are important. 
 
On TG, she has been very vocal as already seen through opposition to the binding mechanism; during her tenure as the equalities minister, she supported the transgender schools’ guidance and a bill to have same-sex toilet facilities in all public premises. 
 
This year there was a public feud where she offended actor David Tennant who is an open transsexual activist after he said that he wished she “did not exist any more”. 
 
Mrs Badenoch has more generally frequently publicly condemned what she terms “identity politics” in relation to race and sex. 
 
Her leadership campaign is Renewal 2030, which is her vision for the reinvention of the Conservatives as per what she described as the party’s core values in the hope that by the first year that they can be back in power, the changes she proposes would be in place. 
 
I never hear her political opinion but what I could see here is that she is supporting a republican. 
 
The current shadow housing secretary was selected to the moderate Conservative Party at the age of twenty five and one year later offered to serve in the Global Poverty Commission policy makers. 
 
In interviews she has expressed that her political stance was shaped by when she was studying at the University of Sussex and some of the things she saw students protesting. 
 
She told The Times: “Something that enraged me was the manner they used to refer to Africa. ” So high-minded. ‘We have to assist Africans. Let it not be beverages; let it be chocolate; let it be terminated because they force the African mothers to give their babies powdered milk. ’ 
 
Because my parents were doctors, I knew that when women are not well fed, formula milk might be better, and many mothers with aids cannot breastfeed at all. 
 
She added: “I was bemused as to why these stupid Leftie white kids tagging around could not realize how wrong they actually were, and while that made me go ‘I don’t care about these people. ’” 
 
It took her three time to get elected to parliament for Dulwich and West Norwood in 2010 election where she came third. She was prior elected as the member of London Assembly in the year 2015 and then was elected as The Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden in the year 2017. 
 
Her first ministerial brief was in the Department for Education in 2019 and has worked in the Treasury and Levelling Up departments. 
 
What does she come from, the kind of family does she have? 
 
In her early 40s, Mrs Badenoch is British-Nigerian by origin, and has spent a considerable part of her childhood in Lagos, but returned to England for her education. 
 
Her husband Hamish, is a banker with Deutsche Bank and a past Tory councillor in Merton and they also have three children. 
 
What is her attitude to Brexit? 
 
Since the Brexit time, Mrs Badenoch has been quite ‘enthusiastic’ having voted for the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union. 
 
She said the Brexit vote was the greatest ever vote of confidence in the project of the United Kingdom during her maiden speech in the Commons. 
 
Her brief in the Department of Business and Trade under Mr Sunak was one of the most crucial to considering the post- Brexit plan, especially when securing trade with other countries. 
 
Before the general election this year, she described the process of Brexit as between the “10 or 20-year project” and reiterated that ensuring every actor is ‘thinking about’ the benefits of Brexit is the key. 
 
Warning Brexit was under threat with a Labour administration, she told The Telegraph: “I believe that is a direction I have made efforts to cover as much, but there is more that needs to be done in terms of strategy. ” 
 
Which scandals has she have involved herself in? 
 
Ms Badenoch has been involved in a number of public disagreements in recent years most recently with the former Post Office chairman regarding the Horizon issue. 
 
Henry Staunton was dismissed by the business secretary in this year and said in The Sunday Times that Mrs Badenoch said to him that “someone’s got to take the blame” for the sub-postmasters who were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015. 
 
In his letter, Mr Staunton, who was appointed to the post in December 2022, said he had never met Mrs Badenoch before being dismissed, and that he only learn about it through a call from Sky News. 
 
It also saw Mr Staunton falsely accusing a civil servant of telling him to delay compensation to victims of the Horizon scandal. 
 
Mrs Badenoch criticised both Mr Staunton and The Sunday Times reacting to the interview accusing the journalist of having decided to ‘disregard the facts and escalate Staunton’s words’. 
 
The shadow housing secretary has also been criticised for ‘bullying’ senior officials out of the business department when she was business secretary. 
 
The Guardian released allegations that she traumatised members of her staff which Mrs Badenoch described as a “hit job”. 
 
Another scandal in Mrs Badenoch’s private life involved Michael Gove a once trusted political compatriot, who alleged to have had an affair, with one of the women associated with Mrs Badenoch that led to a rift between them. 
 
Mrs Badenoch as also had a messy falling out with Suella Braverman whom she allegedly called as one who had a very public nervous breakdown. 
 
Earlier this month Mrs Badenoch tried to disassociate herself from statements she made in 2018 in which she spoke to the relaxation of immigration rules. 
 
The Tory leadership favourite had welcomed changes by Sajid Javid, the home secretary at the time, including increasing a limit on highly skilled immigrants. 
 
Mrs Badenoch was also pleased with Mr Javid’s move to let European Union students to remain in Great Britain for six months after their study is over. 
 
However, when the 2018 comments were published in the Sun newspaper, the shadow secretary of state for communities said she had had a change of heart and urged for an honest discussion about migration policy.