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?

The Tory membership, as opposed to just the MPs, have had an input into selecting the party leader since 2001. This is the first time they have chosen the arguably less right-wing candidate — although both candidates sought to say they were the change from past Tory centrism.

Jenrick, who had started his parliamentary career as a Tory moderate, was radicalized in office by Britain’s migrant crisis. He called for strong action to stem the levels coming into the UK — most specifically by repealing provisions of Britain’s Human Rights Act and for the UK to leave the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights, which had blocked measures by the previous Conservative government.

Jenrick’s campaign set out a raft of detailed policies he would seek to implement. He also stated that he would vote Trump if he was American. Jenrick, whose wife is an Israeli-American, was also robust in his support for Israel.

Other than also standing up strongly if less viscerally for Israel, Badenoch did none of these things. Her campaign set out very few, if any, actual policies. It was all about mood. The new Tory leader is outspoken in opposing progressive dogma. She is never happier than when proclaiming that some cultures are superior to others and that the West has much to celebrate in its past. 

This is her appeal to Tory members — they are thrilled to hear a woman of Nigerian heritage unequivocally stating, without apology, what they themselves feel. Badenoch, aged 44, was born in west London to Nigerian parents, but spent much of her childhood in Lagos back in Nigeria and then in the United States. Unlike many in the UK, she feels no need to cringe when defending British values. As one prominent Tory commentator and historian put it to me, “a loud West African woman slapping the party — and indeed the country — around the face is precisely what we need at this time.”

This is the mood music that resonated with the party membership, but much about her future plans remains vague. Badenoch will attempt to build a strong Shadow Cabinet from what is left of the Tory parliamentary team. 

This task is made harder by the fact that while she will be paid as the Leader of the Opposition, members of the Shadow Cabinet receive no additional salary on top of what they receive as an MP, while their outside earnings are much more restricted than that of a backbencher. Since the next election is probably five years off, some of the most talented may feel they can wait before fully devoting themselves to winning the next election.

Badenoch has a reputation for being bristly and taking offense all too easily, not ideal qualities in a politician. Among those Tory MPs I have spoken to who have misgivings about her election, this is the concern most often raised. It is not the lack of policy, as there is plenty of time to develop this before the election. 

They agree that Badenoch has a brilliant backstory and will be difficult for Starmer and Labour more widely to attack, but they fear that her time in office might well be explosive. The feeling is, the Tories might be in for quite some ride.