81 Facts About Kemi Badenoch

Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch is a British politician who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Conservative Party since November 2024.

The first black person to hold those offices, Badenoch previously served in the Cabinet under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak from 2022 to 2024.

Kemi Badenoch has been Member of Parliament for North West Essex, previously Saffron Walden, since 2017.

In 2012, Kemi 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.

Kemi Badenoch defeated Robert Jenrick in the members' ballot, becoming party leader and Leader of the Opposition.

Kemi Badenoch's mother had travelled from Nigeria to the UK to give birth in St Teresa's private hospital before the British Nationality Act 1981 abolished automatic birthright citizenship for those born in the United Kingdom, and then returned to Nigeria shortly after Badenoch was born.

In later interviews, Kemi 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.

Kemi Badenoch is one of three children born to Nigerian Yoruba parents.

Kemi Badenoch's father, Femi Adegoke, was a GP who later founded a publishing company in Nigeria and became an activist for the rights for the Yoruba people.

Kemi Badenoch's mother Feyi was a professor of physiology in America and at the University of Lagos.

Kemi Badenoch spent her childhood living in Lagos, Nigeria, and in the United States, where her mother lectured.

Kemi Badenoch has spoken about having a "very tough upbringing" in Nigeria.

Kemi Badenoch's family lived in the middle class neighbourhood of Surulere and she was a student at the private International School of Lagos.

Kemi Badenoch 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.

Kemi Badenoch studied A Levels in biology, chemistry and maths, from Phoenix College, a further education college in Morden, south London.

Kemi Badenoch achieved a B in Biology, a B in Chemistry and a D in Maths, claiming that "no one at the school had pushed [her] to fulfil [her] potential" 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.

Kemi Badenoch consequently missed out on her place at Warwick University.

Kemi Badenoch studied Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex, completing a Master of Engineering degree in 2003.

Kemi Badenoch studied law at Birkbeck, University of London, graduating with a LL.

Kemi Badenoch initially worked within the IT sector, first as a software engineer at Logica from 2003 to 2006.

Kemi 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.

Kemi Badenoch joined the Conservative Party in 2005 at the age of 25.

In 2012, Kemi Badenoch stood for the Conservatives in the London Assembly election, where she was placed fifth on the London-wide list.

The fourth-placed candidate on the list, Suella Fernandes, was elected as an MP, so Kemi Badenoch became the new Assembly Member.

Kemi Badenoch went on to retain her seat in the Assembly at the 2016 election, being succeeded in 2017 by fellow Conservative Susan Hall.

Kemi Badenoch supported Brexit in the 2016 UK EU membership referendum.

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

Kemi Badenoch was shortlisted to be the Conservative Party candidate for the marginal Hampstead and Kilburn constituency at the 2017 general election, but was unsuccessful.

Kemi Badenoch was 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.

Kemi Badenoch was appointed as the Conservative Party's Vice Chair for Candidates in January 2018.

Kemi Badenoch voted for Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement in early 2019.

In January 2019, Kemi 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 July 2019, Kemi Badenoch was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families by Boris Johnson.

In February 2020, Kemi Badenoch was appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for International Trade.

Kemi 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".

Kemi Badenoch's actions were criticised by both the National Union of Journalists and the Council of Europe's Safety of Journalists Platform.

Kemi Badenoch was defended by the Prime Minister's press secretary who commented that it was all a "misunderstanding".

On 6 July 2022, Kemi 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.

Kemi Badenoch was eliminated in the fourth round of voting and did not endorse another candidate.

On 25 October 2022, Kemi Badenoch was retained as Secretary of State for International Trade by Rishi Sunak upon him becoming prime minister.

Kemi Badenoch said that Cash had "a track record of promoting women's rights and freedom of expression".

In 2023, after the appointment was completed, Anneliese Dodds, shadow equalities minister, said the government was engulfed in "sleaze and cronyism" and Kemi Badenoch should "come clean" about why she had not declared a political interest in the appointment.

When it reported the story, The Guardian said Kemi 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, Kemi 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.

In December 2023, Kemi Badenoch decided to refuse an application, which was said to have been approved by the British Phonographic Industry, for Music Export Growth Scheme funding from Belfast based rappers Kneecap.

On 1 May 2024 Kemi Badenoch's office used a letter sent by Conservative MP Eddie Hughes to Walsall Academy as evidence to support Kemi Badenoch's claim that girls at a school who did not want to use gender-neutral toilets developed urinary tract infections.

In July 2024, The Guardian reported that at least three officials working under Kemi Badenoch had experienced bullying in the Department for Business and Trade and that she had created an intimidating atmosphere while she was in charge.

Kemi Badenoch's campaign was chaired by former Planning Minister Rachel Maclean.

However, according to both YouGov's poll and ConservativeHome's survey of the Conservative Party membership, Kemi Badenoch still led every other candidate in a head to head race in a membership vote.

The general secretary of the FDA union of civil servants, Dave Penman, called on Kemi Badenoch to withdraw the comments.

Kemi 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.

Kemi Badenoch was then declared the winner of the race, and thus Leader of the Conservative Party.

Kemi 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, Kemi Badenoch's spokesperson confirmed she will not conduct a Shadow Cabinet reshuffle before the next general election.

In November 2024, Kemi 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.

Kemi Badenoch is described as being on the right-wing of the Conservative Party.

Kemi Badenoch has personally described herself as being on the "liberal wing" of the Conservative Party, while being "not really left-leaning on anything".

Kemi Badenoch has identified English philosopher Roger Scruton and American economist Thomas Sowell as her influences, citing Sowell's Basic Economics as an influence.

Kemi Badenoch has been characterised as a social conservative and "anti-woke" politician.

Kemi Badenoch has described herself as a "net zero sceptic" and has generally voted against measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Parliament.

In December 2018, Kemi 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.

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

Kemi 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.

Kemi Badenoch has expressed support for strengthening ties between Israel and the United Kingdom.

Kemi Badenoch argued that the reelection of Trump was a "golden opportunity" for agreements between Britain and America and claimed "the onus is 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.

Kemi 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, Kemi Badenoch was criticized by Nigerian Vice-President Kashim Shettima for previous comments in which he perceived her to be "denigrating her nation of origin".

In leaked WhatsApp messages, Kemi Badenoch said "I don't care about colonialism because [I] 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.

In 2019, Kemi Badenoch abstained on a vote to extend same-sex marriage rights to Northern Ireland.

In 2023, Kemi 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.

Kemi Badenoch 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".

Kemi Badenoch 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 September 2024, while standing to be leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch was asked if she believed that "maternity pay is excessive".

Later the same day, during an interview with Sky News, Kemi 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.

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

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

Kemi Badenoch contested Foyle for the Northern Ireland Conservatives at the 2015 general election.

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

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

Kemi 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".

Kemi Badenoch's father died in February 2022 and she took bereavement leave from her ministerial duties for a brief period.