Britains Conservative Party on Saturday elected Kemi Badenoch as its new leader as it tries to rebound from a crushing election defeat that ended 14 years in power.
The first Black woman to lead a major British political party, Badenoch defeated rival lawmaker Robert Jenrick in a vote of almost 100,000 members of the right-of-center Conservatives.
She got 53,806 votes in the online and postal ballot of party members, to Jenricks 41,388.
Badenoch replaces former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who in July led the Conservatives to their worst election result since 1832. The Conservatives lost more than 200 seats, taking their tally down to 121.
The new leaders daunting task is to try to restore the partys reputation after years of division, scandal and economic tumult, hammer Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s policies on key issues including the economy and immigration, and return the Conservatives to power at the next election, due by 2029.
The task that stands before us is tough but simple, Badenoch said in a victory speech to a roomful of Conservative lawmakers, staff and journalists in London. She said the partys job was to hold the Labour government to account, and to craft pledges and a plan for government.
Addressing the partys election drubbing, she said we have to be honest ” honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip.
The time has come to tell the truth, to stand up for our principles, to plan for our future, to reset our politics and our thinking, and to give our party, and our country, the new start that they deserve, Badenoch said.
A business secretary in Sunaks government, Badenoch was born in London to Nigerian parents and spent much of her childhood in the West African country.
The 44-year-old former software engineer depicts herself as a disruptor, arguing for a low-tax, free-market economy and pledging to rewire, reboot and reprogram the British state.
A critic of multiculturalism and self-proclaimed enemy of wokeness Badenoch has criticized gender-neutral bathrooms and government plans to reduce U.K. carbon emissions. During the leadership campaign she drew criticism for saying that not all cultures are equally valid, and for suggesting that maternity pay was excessive.
Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said the Conservative Party was likely to swing towards the right both in terms of its economic policies and its social policies under Badenoch.
He predicted Badenoch would pursue what you might call the boats, boilers and bathrooms strategy ¦. focusing very much on the trans issue, the immigration issue and skepticism about progress towards net zero.
While the Conservative Party is unrepresentative of the country as a whole ” its 132,000 members are largely affluent, older white men “ its upper echelons have become markedly more diverse.
Badenoch is the Tories third female leader, after Margaret Thatcher and Liz Truss, both of whom became prime minister. Shes the second Conservative leader from a non-white background, after Sunak, and the first with African roots. The center-left Labour Party, in contrast, has only ever been led by white men.
In a leadership contest that lasted more than three months, Conservative lawmakers reduced the field from six candidates in a series of votes before putting the final two to the wider party membership.
Both finalists came from the right of the party, and argued they can win voters back from Reform U.K., the hard-right, anti-immigrant party led by populist politician Nigel Farage that has eaten away at Conservative support.
But the party also lost many voters to the winning party, Labour, and to the centrist Liberal Democrats, and some Conservatives worry that tacking right will lead the party away from public opinion.
Starmers government has had a rocky first few months in office, beset by negative headlines, fiscal gloom and a plummeting approval rating.
But Bale said that the historical record suggests the odds are against Badenoch leading the Conservatives back to power in 2029.
Its quite unusual for someone to take over when a party gets very badly beaten and manage to lead it to election victory, he said. However, Keir Starmer did exactly that after 2019. So records are there to be broken. AP
Founded on January 22, 1995, THISDAY is published by THISDAY NEWSPAPERS LTD., 35 Creek Road Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria with offices in 36 states of Nigeria , the Federal Capital Territory and around the world. It is Nigeria’s most authoritative news media available on all platforms for the political, business, professional and diplomatic elite and broader middle classes while serving as the meeting point of new ideas, culture and technology for the aspirationals and millennials. The newspaper is a public trust dedicated to the pursuit of truth and reason covering a range of issues from breaking news to politics, business, the markets, the arts, sports and community to the crossroads of people and society.
You can email us at: hello@thisdaylive.com or visit our contact us page.