British Conservatives Choose Kemi Badenoch as Party Leader

44-year-old woman with Nigerian background will lead opposition

[The Editors is called The Editors, plural, not The Editor, singular, for a reason. When I launched it, a shrewd friend advised, “it can’t just be you.” I’m delighted to start introducing some additional voices. Today’s comes from Michael Mosbacher, who is associate comment editor at London's Daily Telegraph. He is a past editor of Standpoint and The Critic, having co-founded both British magazines.—Ira Stoll.]

The new leader of the British Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, as seen in her official portrait from the House of Commons.

As the United States is about to choose the next leader of the free world, another rather less momentous election came to its conclusion on Saturday, with British conservatives doing what American Republicans haven’t yet — naming a young female to lead the political party. 

During October about 100,000 members of the UK’s Conservatives voted in a contest that ended today, November 2, with Kemi Badenoch being named party’s next leader. Just more than 56 percent (or 53,806 members) chose Badenoch against Robert Jenrick (41,388) — the final two candidates put to the entire party membership after the initial slate of six had been whittled down in a series of earlier ballots in which only members of Parliament could vote. 

Tory leadership elections give a regular insight into the health of the party in numerical terms — and it has only been headed in one direction. The total votes cast have been going downward in each consecutive election.

The background to this vote is the tremendous shellacking the Tories received in July’s general election. After 14 years in government, they suffered their worst defeat since the modern party’s foundation in 1834. They were reduced to 121 seats in the House of Commons, down from 365 at the last election in 2019. Labour’s victory, although huge in terms of seats, was not terribly impressive in terms of the overall share of the vote, just under 34 percent. Nevertheless, the scale of the Tory defeat cannot be overstated.

The Tories are congratulating themselves this weekend on reading the first poll in more than four years to show them ahead of Labour (29 percent, against 28 percent — Labour’s Keir Starmer has had a nightmarish start to his premiership) and electing their fourth female and second ethnic minority leader. Every Labour leader in the party’s history has been a white male.

So what does Badenoch’s victory signify?