Kemi Badenoch

Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch (' Adegoke; born 2 January 1980) is a British politician who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Conservative Party since November 2024. Badenoch previously worked in the Cabinet for prime ministers Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak from 2022 to 2024. She was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Essex, previously Saffron Walden, in 2017.

In 2012, Badenoch unsuccessfully contested a seat in the London Assembly, but became a member of the London Assembly after Victoria Borwick was elected as an MP in 2015. A supporter of Brexit in the 2016 referendum, Badenoch was elected to the House of Commons at the 2017 general election.

After Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in July 2019, Badenoch was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families. In the February 2020 reshuffle she was appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities. In September 2021 she was promoted to Minister of State for Equalities and appointed Minister of State for Local Government, Faith and Communities.

In July 2022, Badenoch resigned from government in protest at Johnson's leadership; she stood unsuccessfully to replace him in the July–September 2022 party leadership election. After Liz Truss was appointed prime minister in September 2022, Badenoch was appointed Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade and was appointed to the Privy Council; she was reappointed Trade Secretary by Truss's successor, Rishi Sunak, the following month, also becoming Minister for Women and Equalities.

In the February 2023 Cabinet reshuffle, Badenoch assumed the position of Secretary of State for Business and Trade following the merging of the Department for International Trade with elements of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Badenoch retained the responsibilities of Women and Equalities Minister. Following the Conservatives' defeat in the 2024 general election, Badenoch was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government in Sunak's Shadow Cabinet and later launched her bid to become leader of the Conservative Party in the 2024 leadership election. She defeated Robert Jenrick in the members' ballot, becoming party leader and Leader of the Opposition.

Early life and education

Olukemi Olufunto "Kemi" Adegoke was born on 2 January 1980 in Wimbledon, London. Her mother Feyi had travelled from Nigeria to the United Kingdom for medical treatment, and gave birth in St Teresa's Maternity Hospital. This was before the British Nationality Act 1981 abolished automatic birthright citizenship for those born in the UK, Feyi then returned to Nigeria shortly after Olukemi was born. In later interviews, Badenoch denied claims she was an " anchor baby" and asserted that her family did not know she was in fact eligible for a British passport until she was a teenager.

Her father, Femi Adegoke, was a general practitioner who later founded a publishing company in Nigeria and became an activist for the rights for the Yoruba people. Her mother Feyi was a professor of physiology at the University of Lagos. Adegoke has a brother and a sister. According to a profile in ''The Times'', Badenoch is the first cousin once removed of former Nigerian Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.

Badenoch spent her childhood living in Lagos, Nigeria, and in the United States, where her mother lectured. Badenoch has spoken about having a "very tough upbringing" in Nigeria. Her family lived in the middle class neighbourhood of Surulere and she was a student at the private International School of Lagos. Badenoch has described her background as "middle-class" but said in 2018 "Being middle class in Nigeria still meant having no running water or electricity, sometimes taking your own chair to school" and claimed that her family went through "periods of poverty" due to inflation. She returned to the UK at the age of 16 to live with a friend of her mother's owing to the deteriorating political and economic situation in Nigeria, which had affected her family. During her parliamentary maiden speech Badenoch stated that she was "to all intents and purposes a first-generation immigrant".

Badenoch studied A Levels in biology, chemistry and maths, at Phoenix College, a further education college in Morden, south London. She achieved a B in biology, a B in chemistry and a D in maths, claiming that "no one at the school had pushed erto fulfil erpotential" despite being a "straight A student" while in Nigeria and that being let down by the British education system pushed her to become a conservative. She consequently missed out on her place at Warwick University. Concurrently, she worked at a branch of McDonald's, among other jobs. During this time, she said she "became working class". Badenoch studied Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex, completing a Master of Engineering (MEng) degree in 2003. She studied law at Birkbeck, University of London, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) in 2009, and becoming a Fellow of Birkbeck in 2018.

Early career

Badenoch initially worked within the information technology sector, first as a software engineer at Logica (later CGI Group) from 2003 to 2006. While working there she read Law part-time at Birkbeck, University of London, graduating as Bachelor of Laws (LLB) in 2009. Badenoch then worked as a systems analyst at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, before pursuing a career in consultancy and financial services, working as an associate director at private bank and wealth manager Coutts from 2006 to 2013 and later a digital director for ''The Spectator'' from 2015 to 2016.

Political career

Badenoch joined the Conservative Party in 2005 at the age of 25. At the 2010 general election, she contested the Dulwich and West Norwood constituency and came third, behind the Labour Party incumbent MP Tessa Jowell and the Liberal Democrat candidate Jonathan Mitchell.

London Assembly

In 2012, Badenoch stood for the Conservatives in the London Assembly election, where she was placed fifth on the London-wide list; Badenoch was not elected as Conservatives won only three seats.

Three years later, in the 2015 general election, Victoria Borwick was elected to the House of Commons and resigned her seat on the London Assembly. The fourth-placed candidate on the list, Suella Fernandes (Braverman), was also elected as an MP, so Badenoch became the new Assembly Member. She went on to retain her seat in the Assembly at the 2016 election, being succeeded in 2017 by fellow Conservative Susan Hall.

Badenoch supported Brexit in the 2016 UK EU membership referendum.

In 2018, Badenoch admitted that, a decade earlier, as a prank, she had hacked into the website of Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman; Harman accepted Badenoch's apology, but the matter was reported to Action Fraud, the UK's cyber crime reporting centre.

Parliamentary career

Badenoch was shortlisted to be the Conservative Party candidate for the marginal Hampstead and Kilburn constituency at the 2017 general election, but was unsuccessful. She was subsequently selected for the same election as the Conservative candidate for Saffron Walden, a safe seat for her party, which she won with 37,629 votes and a majority of 24,966 (41.0%).

Early tenure

In her maiden speech as an MP on 19 July 2017, she described the vote for Brexit as "the greatest ever vote of confidence in the project of the United Kingdom" and cited her personal heroes as the Conservative politicians Winston Churchill, Airey Neave and Margaret Thatcher.

In the same month, Badenoch was selected to join the 1922 Executive Committee. In September, she was appointed to the parliamentary Justice Select Committee. She was appointed as the Conservative Party's Vice Chair for Candidates in January 2018.

She voted for Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement in early 2019. In the indicative votes on 27 March, she voted against a referendum on a withdrawal agreement and against a customs union with the EU. In October, Badenoch voted for Johnson's withdrawal agreement.

In January 2019, Badenoch was criticised by a number of Labour MPs for suggesting that Tulip Siddiq was "making a point" by delaying her scheduled caesarean section in order to attend a House of Commons vote on Brexit.

In the run-up to the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election, Badenoch was tipped as a possible contender just two years into her tenure in parliament. She instead supported the campaign of Michael Gove. In the December 2019 general election, she was re-elected with an increased majority of 27,594 (43.7%) votes.

Johnson government

In July 2019, Badenoch was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families by Boris Johnson. In February 2020, Badenoch was appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Equalities) in the Department for International Trade.

Badenoch published a series of tweets in January 2021 in which she included screenshots of questions sent to her office by ''HuffPost'' journalist Nadine White whom she, as a result, accused of "creepy and bizarre behaviour". White subsequently made her Twitter account private, citing the abuse she received. Badenoch's actions were criticised by both the National Union of Journalists and the Council of Europe's Safety of Journalists Platform. She was defended by the Prime Minister's press secretary who commented that it was all a "misunderstanding".

In a Cabinet reshuffle in September 2021, Badenoch was promoted to Minister of State for Equalities and appointed Minister of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. Within days of her appointments, the latter title was renamed "Minister of State for Levelling Up Communities". On 6 July 2022, Badenoch resigned from the government, citing Johnson's handling of the Chris Pincher scandal, in a joint statement with fellow ministers Alex Burghart, Neil O'Brien, Lee Rowley and Julia Lopez.

2022 leadership candidacy

Following Johnson's resignation, Badenoch launched a bid to succeed him as Conservative Party leader, stating that she wanted to "tell the truth" and that she advocated "strong but limited government". As a candidate, she called the target of net zero carbon emissions "ill-thought through" and said that politicians had become "hooked on the idea of the state fixing the majority of problems".

According to ''The Sunday Times'', Badenoch entered the race as "a relatively unknown minister for local government" but "within a week emerged as the insurgent candidate to become Britain’s next prime minister". She was eliminated in the fourth round of voting and did not endorse another candidate.

Truss government

In September 2022, after Liz Truss became prime minister, she appointed Badenoch to her Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Trade. Following Truss' resignation the following month, Badenoch endorsed Rishi Sunak in the leadership election, stating that he was "the serious, honest leader we need".

Sunak government

On 25 October 2022, Badenoch was retained as Secretary of State for International Trade by Rishi Sunak upon him becoming prime minister. She was also granted the additional role of Minister for Women & Equalities.

In a February 2023 Cabinet reshuffle, Badenoch was appointed as the first Secretary of State at the newly created Department for Business and Trade, with continued responsibility for equalities. The new role was effectively an expansion of her portfolio as International Trade Secretary to include the business and investment responsibilities of the newly dissolved Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

In 2022, Badenoch, as Equalities Minister, approved the appointment of Joanne Cash as a Commissioner to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) board. Badenoch said that Cash had "a track record of promoting women's rights and freedom of expression". Subsequently, in the summer of 2022, Cash donated to Badenoch's campaign as a candidate for leadership of the Conservative Party. In 2023, after the appointment was completed, Anneliese Dodds, shadow equalities minister, said the government was engulfed in "sleaze and cronyism" and Badenoch should "come clean" about why she had not declared a political interest in the appointment. When it reported the story, ''The Guardian'' said Badenoch had not broken any rules and quoted an Equality Hub spokesperson saying the "appointment was made following a full and open competition".

In late April 2023, Badenoch announced that the government was planning to reduce the number of laws to be repealed to around 800, as opposed to the government's original target of around 4,000 laws. The change was met with dismay by Brexit advocates, including the Bill's original architect Jacob Rees-Mogg. Nevertheless, ''The New Statesman'' named her as the seventh most powerful British right-wing figure in 2023, describing her as the "darling" of many party members, in spite of "cooling enthusiasm".

On 16 July 2023, Badenoch signed an agreement for the UK to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which on ratification would give British exporters preferential access to a market of 500 million consumers in the Asia Pacific region, who accounted for approximately 13% of global GDP. Although the UK government forecasted that membership of the trading bloc would only increase the size of the economy by 0.08% over 10 years.

In December 2023, Badenoch decided to refuse an application, which was said to have been approved by the British Phonographic Industry, for Music Export Growth Scheme (MEGS) funding from Belfast based rappers Kneecap. ''BBC News'' reported that a government spokesperson said it was "hardly surprising" that they did not want to hand out UK taxpayers' money to those opposed to the United Kingdom. The rap group claimed that the actual reason for the refusal was that a poster for their 2019 'Farewell to the Union' tour, which depicted Boris Johnson tied to a large firework rocket, had angered the Conservative Party. On 29 November 2024, the Belfast High Court ruled that the British government had acted illegally by withholding the £14,250 in funding on the sole basis of the band's political views, with the UK’s Department for Business and Trade agreeing that the original decision by Badenoch had been “unlawful and procedurally unfair”. In a statement, Kneecap accused the former Conservative government of committing "a fascist type action, an attempt to block art that does not agree with their views".

Under Badenoch's direction, negotiations for the Canada–United Kingdom Trade Continuity Agreement was paused in January 2024 after the British government resisted Canadian demands to lift the ban on hormone treated beef being sold to UK consumers. The ending of talks resulted in a worse trade agreement with Canada than when the UK was still an EU member, such as a 245% tariff on British cheese exports.

On 1 May 2024 Badenoch's office used a letter sent by Conservative MP Eddie Hughes to Walsall Academy as evidence to support Badenoch's claim that girls at a school who did not want to use gender-neutral toilets developed urinary tract infections. Hughes had claimed in May 2023 in a letter to Walsall Academy that "one female pupil has developed a UTI" as she did not feel comfortable using gender-neutral toilets.

Early opposition and 2024 leadership bid

Due to the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, Badenoch's constituency of Saffron Walden was abolished, and replaced with North West Essex. At the 2024 general election, Badenoch was elected to Parliament as MP for North West Essex with 35.6% of the vote and a majority of 2,610. Following the Conservative defeat at the general election, she was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. She publicly criticised Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman.

In July 2024, ''The Guardian'' reported that at least three officials working under Badenoch had experienced bullying in the Department for Business and Trade and that she had created an intimidating atmosphere while she was in charge. According to this report, the officials felt "pushed out" by "bullying and traumatising" behaviour and claimed that individuals were regularly humiliated and occasionally left in tears after working with her. An official "town hall" meeting had been held in December 2023 to address low morale in the department. Badenoch denied these claims, describing them as smears from former staff and accusing them of "covering up their own failures and general gross incompetence", and accused ''The Guardian'' of acting on behalf of the Labour Party. A department spokesperson confirmed that there were no formal complaints or investigations into Badenoch's alleged behaviour.

On 28 July 2024, she announced she was running in the election to be the new Tory leader. Badenoch's campaign was chaired by former Planning Minister Rachel Maclean. In the days leading up to the announcement, Badenoch released a statement criticising the "dirty tricks" of rival candidates, after The Spectator published an article quoting unflattering comments posted by a user named "Kemi" from several years previously on the ''Naijablog'' website.

Despite being considered the frontrunner at the beginning of the contest, In the first and second MP ballots, Badenoch came second to Robert Jenrick, with 22 and 28 votes respectively. However, according to both YouGov's poll and ConservativeHome's survey of the Conservative Party membership, Badenoch still led every other candidate in a head to head race in a membership vote.

Speaking at the 2024 Conservative Party Conference, Badenoch joked that up to 10% of civil servants are so bad they should be in prison, suggesting they leak official secrets and "agitate" against ministers, "There’s about 5–10% of them who are very, very bad. You know, should-be-in-prison bad", Badenoch said.

The general secretary of the FDA union of civil servants, Dave Penman, called on Badenoch to withdraw the comments. "These are serious accusations from a former secretary of state, who is now standing to be leader of her party. If she has evidence to back up those claims she should publish it, otherwise withdraw."

Badenoch came third in the third MP's ballot, with 30 votes, but topped the final vote of MPs with 42, one ahead of Robert Jenrick and five clear of James Cleverly who was eliminated. In the Member's vote, Badenoch faced Jenrick, who she defeated with 56.5% of the vote. She was then declared the winner of the race, and thus Leader of the Conservative Party.

Leader of the Opposition (2024present)

In her acceptance speech, Badenoch vowed to "renew" the Conservative Party, setting out her belief that the Conservatives had two responsibilities: to "hold this Labour Government to account" and to "prepare over the course of the next few years for government". She became the first black leader of any major UK political party and the fourth woman to lead the Conservative Party, after Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May and Liz Truss.

Badenoch appointed Rebecca Harris as Chief Whip of the Conservative Party in her first appointment to her Shadow Cabinet on 4 November 2024, as she began forming her opposition frontbench. On 15 January 2025, Badenoch's spokesperson confirmed she will not conduct a Shadow Cabinet reshuffle before the next general election.

In a 23 December 2024 interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Badenoch said the public "kicked out" the Conservative Party because it was not trusted and did not deliver; she dismissed concerns that her approach of not having specific policy positions would leave a vacuum that could be filled by Reform UK; and she acknowledged the forthcoming 2025 United Kingdom local elections would be difficult for her party.

In a January 2025 speech, Badenoch criticised past actions of the Conservative Party regarding issues such as delivering Brexit and lowering immigration, admitting that they had told the public "what they wanted to hear first and then tried to work it out later."

In May 2025, on the occasion of a negotiation of a new deal with the European Union by Keir Starmer's government, Kemi Badenoch declared " “There is a big difference between an 18 year old from France who’s coming for their gap year and a 30 year old with several children who’s coming from a much poorer EU country like Bulgaria or Romania."

Northern Ireland

In November 2024, Badenoch faced criticism from Eurosceptic MPs, such as Nigel Farage, when she whipped Conservative MPs into abstaining on a vote to introduce passports for household pets travelling between the mainland UK and Northern Ireland. As well as a perceived undermining of the Union, critics said that an effective Opposition would oppose the scheme rather than wave it through Parliament.

Calls for a public inquiry into historic child abuse by grooming gangs

In October 2024, Jess Phillips, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, rejected Oldham Council's request for an independent public inquiry into the Oldham child sexual exploitation scandal, favouring a locally-run inquiry instead. On 2 January 2025, Badenoch called for a "long overdue" national public inquiry into the UK's rape gangs, criticising the government for not supporting a government-led inquiry into Oldham's case.

In response, Phillips said that the previous Conservative government, of which Badenoch was a part, had also supported a local inquiry in Oldham, while Starmer accused Badenoch of only jumping "on the bandwagon" after recent tweets from Elon Musk (who called Phillips a "rape genocide apologist" and suggested she was attempting to shield Starmer from blame since he led the Crown Prosecution Service when the abuse occurred), highlighting how she never raised the issue during her previous seven years in government, which included periods when she served as the Children’s Minister and the Minister for Women and Equalities. Farage responded by accusing both major parties of failing victims over the years and a week later announced that Reform UK would raise money to appoint "independent arbiters" to examine gang rapes across Britain if the government refused to do it itself.

Starmer said politicians and activists were "spreading lies and misinformation" over grooming gangs, and were appealing to the far-right. Professor Alexis Jay, who chaired the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse said: "It doesn't need more consultation, it does not need more research or discussion, it just needs to be done."

Israel’s expulsion of Labour MPs

In early April 2025, Badenoch was the subject of cross-party condemnation when she defended Israel’s decision to refuse entry and then deport Labour MP's Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed, who were traveling as part of a charity delegation consisting of Medical Aid for Palestinians and the Council for Arab-British Understanding. In response to Badenoch's comments on Sky News that she respected every countries' right to control its borders, the UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy released a statement saying it was "disgraceful you are cheerleading another country for detaining and deporting two British MPs". A few days later, after Badenoch criticised the government of China for not allowing Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse to enter Hong Kong, she claimed "the two situations are different" when challenged by reporters about her two contrasting responses to the similar diplomatic incidents.

2025 local elections

Under Badenoch's leadership, in the May 2025 local elections the Conservatives (and also Labour) lost about two-thirds of the council seats held. All 16 councils where the Conservatives had a majority were lost to Reform UK or the Liberal Democrats, or no party had a majority. Badenoch apologised to all unseated councillors, describing the result as "a bloodbath". In the 2025 Runcorn and Helsby by-election for a seat in Parliament, held on the same day, the Conservative Party won 7% of the vote, coming third behind Reform and Labour on 39% each.

India–UK Free Trade Agreement

After the India–United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement was agreed in principle on 6 May 2025, Badenoch criticized the deal's three year UK National Insurance exemption for Indian workers. However, Badenoch later faced accusations of hypocrisy when the Financial Times quoted unnamed Indian government officials in claiming she herself had offered giving Indian employees a similar two year N.I. relief during negotiations when she was the UK Trade Secretary.

Political views

Badenoch is described as being on the right wing of the Conservative Party. She has also personally described herself as being on the " liberal wing" of the Conservative Party, while being "not really left-leaning on anything". She has identified English philosopher Roger Scruton and American economist Thomas Sowell as her influences, citing Sowell's ''Basic Economics'' as an influence.

During her parliamentary maiden speech in 2017, Badenoch named Winston Churchill, Airey Neave and Margaret Thatcher as political heroes. She has also been characterised as a social conservative and " anti-woke" politician. Badenoch has described herself as a " net zero sceptic" and has generally voted against measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Parliament.

Race relations

During a House of Commons debate in April 2021, Badenoch criticised the Labour Party's response to a report compiled by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities that had declared Britain was not institutionally racist. Labour had described the report as "cherry-picking of data", while the party's former frontbench MP Dawn Butler claimed the report was "gaslighting on a national scale", describing those who put it together as "racial gatekeepers". Badenoch accused Labour of "wilful misrepresentations" over the report and responded to Butler's comments by stating "It is wrong to accuse those who argue for a different approach as being racism deniers or race traitors. It's even more irresponsible, dangerously so, to call ethnic minority people racial slurs like Uncle Toms, coconuts, house slaves or house negroes for daring to think differently."

In a Black History Month debate in the House of Commons in October 2020, she reiterated the government's opposition to primary and secondary schools teaching white privilege and similar "elements of critical race theory" as uncontested facts. ''ConservativeHome'' readers voted Badenoch's speech on critical race theory 2020 "speech of the year", in which she said that any school that teaches "elements of political race theory as fact, or which promotes partisan political views such as defunding the police without offering a balanced treatment of opposing views, is breaking the law."

During her leadership campaign launch, Badenoch expressed criticism of identity politics in a 2022 article for ''The Times'', arguing that, "Exemplified by coercive control, the imposition of views, the shutting down of debate, the end of due process, identity politics is not about tolerance or individual rights but the very opposite of our crucial and enduring British values."

Immigration

In December 2018, Badenoch praised the Home Secretary’s decision to remove the annual limits on work visas and to allow students from the European Union to stay in the UK for six months after graduating.

In September 2024, Badenoch wrote an article for ''The Sunday Telegraph'' in which she argued that "We can not be naïve and assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border, or that all cultures are equally valid. They are not." She argued that "Our country is not a dormitory for people to come here and make money. It is our home. Those we chose to welcome, we expect to share our values and contribute to our society. British citizenship is more than having a British passport but also a commitment to the UK and its people." Badenoch also called for a better "integration strategy" that emphasised British values and culture, referring in her article to the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Baroness Falkner, who had reported that "we seem to be failing to integrate" new immigrants, and "called for new arrivals to the UK to be required to take an 'integration course', adopting an approach used in Germany".

During an interview on the BBC's '' Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg'' broadcast in September 2024, Badenoch stated that she believed in "western values, the principles which have made this country great, and I think that we need to make sure that we continue to abide by those principles, to keep the society that we have now." She said that immigrants who bring "foreign conflicts" should not be welcomed into the country, citing what she argued as the "number of recent immigrants who hate Israel. It is quite clear that there are many people who have recently come to this country who have brought views from where they used to be that have no place here." She argued that the United Kingdom needed a stronger strategy to "make sure that we have a shared culture and a shared identity".

Badenoch is opposed to allowing devolved governments within the United Kingdom to operate a separate immigration and visa policy.

In November 2024, Badenoch stated that the Conservative Party had "got it wrong" on immigration during their time in power and said the party would launch a review into "every policy, treaty and part of our legal framework – including the ECHR and the Human Rights Act”. Badenoch said the Conservatives will introduce a new immigration policy under her leadership which will include a "strict numerical cap" on immigration, tightening access to British passports and a "zero tolerance" policy on foreign criminals staying in the United Kingdom.

Foreign policy

Badenoch has expressed support for strengthening ties between Israel and the United Kingdom. During her leadership bid, Badenoch wrote a letter to the Conservative Friends of Israel saying: “If I am leader of the Conservative Party, we will continue to strengthen our ties with Israel and root out the tragic resurgence of antisemitism in the UK. We will be true to our values.” A November 2024 article in ''The Times of Israel'' described Badenoch as a "pro-Israel" politician. In May 2025, in an interview with Trevor Phillips on Sky News, Badenoch defended Israel's war on Gaza, described it as a "proxy war on behalf of the UK" and stated that the war aligns with "Britain's national interest." Badenoch also dismissed Israel's actions as a "genocide" stating, "Israel is fighting a war. It is not for me to police exactly how they are doing that…It is not a genocide, as people are saying."

In her role as International Trade Secretary, Badenoch rejected demands to revoke arms exports to Israel following the outbreak of the Gaza war and condemned the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. In a September 2024 interview with ''Sky News'' Badenoch argued that Israel had shown “moral clarity in dealing with its enemies and the enemies of the West” with military action targeting the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Following the 2024 United States presidential election which resulted in the victory of Donald Trump, Badenoch wrote a column in ''The Daily Telegraph'' imploring the British government to resume trade deal talks with the United States which had been scrapped by the Biden administration. She argued that the reelection of Trump was a "golden opportunity" for agreements between Britain and America and claimed "the onus is now on the Labour Government to put aside their embarrassing student politics diplomacy, which has already shot Britain in the foot on Israel and the Chagos Islands" and warned that delays by Starmer's government to engage with Trump's administration would put Britain at risk if the White House introduced trade tariffs.

In 2023, Badenoch referred to China's role on the world stage as a "challenge" rather than a "threat" to Britain and argued "Chinese people are different from the Chinese government and it is important to be diplomatic." By 2024, Badenoch argued that China represented a threat through "economic coercion" and a deliberate strategy to "flood the market, driving other nations’ industries out of business." She wrote "too many of the world’s economies continue to develop a dependency on China, including the UK. This is dangerous for our economy and our freedom. We need to understand exactly how our exposure to China impacts our national security to ensure that we can’t be blackmailed" and argued that net zero targets in Britain risked handing the Chinese government an unfair economic advantage through outsourced EV, battery and solar production to China involving slave labour. Badenoch argued that Britain should participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership and embed itself in trade agreements within the Indo-Pacific region to create more economic competition with China.

In December 2024, Badenoch was criticised by Nigerian Vice-President Kashim Shettima for previous comments in which he perceived her to be "denigrating her nation of origin". In response, a spokesman for Badenoch indicated that she would not be withdrawing any previous statements, adding that she "is not the PR for Nigeria".

Colonialism

Regarding the United Kingdom's colonial history, Badenoch has argued that "there were terrible things that happened during the British Empire, there were other good things that happened, and we need to tell both sides of the story".

In leaked WhatsApp messages, Badenoch said "I don't care about colonialism because know what we were doing before colonialism got there" and argued that Europeans "came in and just made a different bunch of winners and losers" on the African continent. She also stated that prior to colonisation, "There was never any concept of 'rights', so hepeople who lost out were old elites; not everyday people".

In a 2024 speech, Badenoch said: "It worries me when I hear people talk about wealth and success in the UK as being down to colonialism or imperialism or white privilege or whatever." Instead, she said "the Glorious Revolution of 1688 – which led to the development of the UK constitution and solidified the role of parliament – should be credited for providing the kind of economic certainty that paved the way for the Industrial Revolution."

In June 2025, after the agreement to return the Chagos Archipelago located in the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius, Kemi Badenoch called the agreement "terrible", "and why on earth" should British taxpayers pay for tax cuts in Mauritius.

LGBT rights

In 2019, Badenoch abstained on a vote to extend same-sex marriage rights to Northern Ireland. In February 2023, Badenoch defended Scottish politician Kate Forbes after Forbes said marriage should only be between a man and a woman. Badenoch stated: "I support same-sex marriage and, like anyone, I’m disappointed when anyone disagrees with me. But if you’re asking me to condemn someone for their religious views you’ve failed to understand the basic responsibilities of being minister for equality".

Maternity pay

In September 2024, while standing to be leader of the Conservative Party, Badenoch was asked if she believed that "maternity pay is excessive". In response, Badenoch answered, "I think it's gone too far, too far the other way in terms of general business regulation, we need to allow businesses, especially small businesses, to make more of their own decisions". Later the same day, during an interview with Sky News, Badenoch stated that maternity pay was "a good thing" and said "I don't think it is excessive", saying that she was speaking about business regulation in general, rather than maternity pay specifically.

Transgender rights

In 2021, ''Vice News'' received leaked audio from 2018 in which Badenoch said "Even when, you know, so, people hear about, you know like the whole bathroom thing, it's actually more of an American thing but they have a similar problem, that, right so now it's not just about being free to marry who you want, you now want to have men using women’s bathrooms." She was accused by critics of mocking gay marriage and of transphobia for referring to trans women as "men". A government spokesperson rejected these claims, saying that "This 2018 comment has been taken out of context, with the Minister making a clear point about striking the balance for equality and fairness when there are multiple and often competing demands between different groups. It should not be used to misrepresent her views." On 13 July 2020, Badenoch held an introductory meeting with the LGB Alliance, a group which has been criticised for opposing transgender rights.

In March 2021, Badenoch was encouraged to "consider her position" as an Equalities Minister by Jayne Ozanne, one of a group of three government LGBT advisers who quit their roles due to the decision by the government not to include transgender conversion therapy in its plans to ban gay conversion therapy, with Ozanne describing a speech by Badenoch on the issue as being "appalling" and the "final straw".

As Minister of State for Equalities, Badenoch opposed plans by the Financial Conduct Authority to allow transgender employees to self-identify in the workplace, opposed gender-neutral toilets in public buildings, and has spoken in favour of retaining single-sex spaces such as toilets, professional sports, changing rooms, and domestic violence shelters for women.

In 2023, Badenoch gave a speech before the House of Commons in which she announced regulations stripping the ability of transgender migrants from certain countries to acquire documents in the UK to match those brought from their countries of origin. This was stated as being due to these countries allowing trans people to transition "too easily". She stated that "It is this government's policy that the UK does not recognise self-identification for the purpose of obtaining a Gender Recognition Certificate" and that it "should not be possible for a person who does not satisfy the criteria for UK legal gender recognition to use the overseas routes to do so".

In December 2023, it was revealed that Badenoch had not met with any major LGBTQ+ rights organisation since becoming Equalities Minister, but had met with the LGB Alliance and Sex Matters, two groups critical of transgender rights. This revelation came shortly after her Commons statement on revoking recognition of overseas Gender Recognition Certificates.

In February 2024, Badenoch stated in a letter to a parliamentary committee that children likely to grow up gay may be wrongly medicalised as transgender. She wrote: "Evidence that children likely to grow up to be gay nd be same-sex attractedmight be subjected to conversion practices on the basis of gender identity rather than their sexual orientation…. A young person and their family may notice that they are gender non-conforming earlier than they are aware of their developing sexual orientation. If gender non-conformity is misinterpreted as evidence of being transgender and a child is medically affirmed, the child may not have had a chance to identify, come to terms with or explore a same-sex orientation."

Badenoch went on to announce the government's plans to move forward on a conversion therapy ban, while saying that gender-affirming healthcare for young people who question their gender was "a new form of conversion therapy" as, in her view, "we are seeing I would say almost an epidemic of young gay children being told that they are trans and being put on a medical pathway for irreversible decisions and regretting what they have done", further stating that a draft bill would address the concern that clinicians are "fearful of giving honest clinical advice to a child because if they do not automatically affirm and medicalise a child's new gender they will be labelled transphobic". She further announced plans to ban social transition in British schools, according to which transgender-identifying children would be permitted to self-identity as the gender identity of their choice without parental consent or knowledge.

In an article in ''The Sunday Times'' in the aftermath of the publication of the Cass Review, an investigation into gender identity services in the NHS, Badenoch wrote that had "those who warned that gender services in the NHS had been hijacked by ideologues been listened to instead of gagged, children would not have been harmed and the Cass review would not have been required. Our responsibility is to ensure that nothing like it ever happens again."

After the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled in '' For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers'' in 2025 that the terms "man" and "woman" in the Equality Act 2010 referred to biological sex and not gender or gender identity, Badenoch described the judgment as a "victory for all of the women who faced personal abuse or lost their jobs for stating the obvious", and declared that "the era of Keir Starmer telling us women can have penises has come to an end".

Badenoch called for a comprehensive review of equality and gender recognition laws, stating: "Biological sex is real. A gender recognition certificate is there to show that someone is now transgender, but that doesn't change their biology." She further emphasized, "The Supreme Court has given a judgment, but I think that we need to update those laws to ensure that they are there to prevent discrimination, not for social engineering."Kemi Badenoch calls for broader review of equality and gender recognition laws
''The Guardian'', 17 April 2025.

In May 2025, Badenoch reiterated her support for a complete ban on transgender women competing in women's physical sports. Speaking to GB News, she stated: "You shouldn't have men swimming or running against women, we are biologically different, and that's something that needs to be recognised by all the sporting bodies." Badenoch differentiated between physical and non-physical competitions, suggesting that exceptions could be made for activities such as chess where "it's not to do with physical attributes."Kemi Badenoch: Trans women should be banned from all female physical sport
''GB News'', 4 May 2025.

Economics and class

In a 2024 pamphlet distributed as part of her campaign for leadership of the Conservative Party, Badenoch said that politics has shifted away from class "in the old sense – increasingly, whether you are high income does not drive your voting patterns. Educated voters are moving left, and many private sector voters on average incomes are moving right." She also said that a new 'progressive ideology' was on the rise built on "the twin pillars of constant intervention on behalf of protecting marginalised, vulnerable groups, including protecting us from ourselves – and the idea that bureaucrats make better decisions than individuals, or even democratic nation states".

Badenoch said that the consequent growth in government regulations and public expenditure cripples economic growth, polarises societies, and leads to a "new and growing bureaucratic class", where "more and more jobs are related not to providing goods and services in the marketplace, but are instead focused around administering government rules."

Awards

In December 2024, Kemi Badenoch was included in the BBC 100 Women 2024 list.

Personal life

Badenoch is married to Hamish Badenoch; they have two daughters and a son.

Hamish works for Deutsche Bank and was a Conservative councillor from 2014 to 2018 on Merton Borough Council. He also contested Foyle for the Northern Ireland Conservatives at the 2015 general election.

Badenoch credits the NHS with preventing her miscarrying her first daughter, having had emergency surgery when she went into labour at twenty weeks.

Kemi Badenoch was a board member of the Charlton Triangle Homes housing association until 2016, and was also a school governor at St Thomas the Apostle College in Southwark, and the Jubilee Primary School.

Badenoch describes herself as an agnostic with cultural Christian values and said that her maternal grandfather was a Methodist minister in Nigeria.

Badenoch identifies as Yoruba, not Nigerian, stating: "I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, the Boko Haram where the Islamism is, those were our ethnic enemies".

Notes

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Badenoch, Kemi

1980 births
21st-century British women engineers
21st-century English women politicians
Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London
Alumni of the University of Sussex
Black British MPs
Black British women politicians
British Eurosceptics
British agnostics
British expatriates in the United States
British people of Yoruba descent
Conservative Members of the London Assembly
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
English people of Nigerian descent
Female members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies

Leaders of the Conservative Party (UK)
Leaders of the opposition (United Kingdom)
Living people
London AMs 2012–2016
London AMs 2016–2021
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Ministers for women and equalities
Politicians from Wimbledon, London
Presidents of the Board of Trade
Shadow cabinet of Kemi Badenoch
The Spectator people
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–2024
UK MPs 2024–present
UK councillors 2014–2018
Women councillors in England
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