Tories replace Sunak with party’s first black leader

TOI Corospodent from London: Britain’s Conservative Party has elected its first black leader, Kemi Badenoch, since its founding in 1834. Badenoch, who was announced as the new Opposition leader on Saturday, also makes history as the first black woman to be elected to lead any major UK political party.
The 44-year-old mother-of-three received 53,806 votes and Robert Jenrick received 41,388 votes in the ballot by the party membership after four other candidates were knocked out by the parliamentary party.
The results were announced just as a new poll showed the Conservatives leading Labour for the first time since Dec 2021.
Born in the UK to Nigerian parents, Badenoch, who is stepping into Rishi Sunak’s shoes (Sunak was the first non-white to lead the Tories), is known for her forthright no-nonsense approach and anti-woke views. In her victory speech, she vowed to “renew” herparty.
Her parents took her back to Lagos where she was raised under successive military regimes until she returned to the UK aged 16.
She became an MP in 2017. In her maiden speech she spoke about doing her homework by candlelight in Nigeria and fetching water in heavy, rusty buckets from a borehole.
She travelled to India as international trade secretary to negotiate the UK-India free trade deal with her counterpart, Union minister Piyush Goyal, but said afterwards she had refused to cave in on India’s demands for visas.
During her election campaign, she had told “Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg”: “I saw as equalities minister people bringing cultural disputes from India to the streets of Leicester. We need to make sure that when people come to this country, they leave their previous differences behind.”
She had also told a Conservative Friends of India (CFI) hustings: “We have to make sure the people who come here from India are the people who want to contribute to UK”. She had said there needed to be a level playing field in terms of movement of people as many British people want to travel and work in India.
She said Delhi was a warm place full of friendly people and it reminded her of growing up in Nigeria. She had recalled having a “jolly good time” with Goyal and that they had “agreed on so much”. “This is why I think the UK India FTA is definitely possible, but we need to make sure it works for both countries,” she had said, blaming India being a “protectionist country” for the FTA not getting over the line.
“We need to ensure that we keep India close. There is an axis of authoritarian states collaborating against the West and they would love to have India on their side,” she had told the CFI hustings.