Kemi Badenoch: Key figure tipped for future leadership

Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch has been tipped as a potential future leader of the Conservatives and cemented herself a key figure in the government.

Last time Conservative MPs had a vote on who should be party leader, Ms Badenoch came fourth.

Despite this she has gone on to have a profound impact on the shape of her party, becoming a darling of Conservative right-wingers due to her direct approach and dedication to "anti-woke" principles.

Rarely mentioned in speculation before the contest started, Ms Badenoch outlasted some far bigger names in the 2022 Tory leadership race.

And she has had a long career within the Conservative Party.

Born in Wimbledon, south London, to parents of Nigerian origin, the 44-year-old grew up in the US and Nigeria, where her psychology professor mother had lecturing jobs.

She returned to the UK at the age of 16, and studied for her A-levels at a college in south London while working at a branch of McDonald's.

After completing a degree in computer systems engineering at Sussex University, she developed a career as a systems analyst while working part-time to gain a second degree in Law from Birkbeck University.

She eventually moved into banking, becoming an associate director of private bank Coutts and later digital director of the influential right-wing magazine The Spectator.

A small state Conservative, Ms Badenoch cites Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher among her political heroes.

She joined the Conservative Party at the age of 25, and spent several years trying to get elected to Parliament - and had a stint on the London Assembly, where she was Conservative spokesman for the economy. She backed Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum.

In 2017, she eventually achieved her ambition of becoming an MP in the safe Conservative seat of Saffron Walden, Essex.

Since she was elected to Parliament, Ms Badenoch's career has been characterised by her straightforwardness and willingness to engage in controversial topics.

As the government's equalities minister, she enraged many on the left when she challenged the notion that there is widespread institutional racism in the UK.

In an LBC interview during her campaign to become Tory leader, she said she had only ever experienced prejudice from left wingers.

"I came to this country aged 16 and now I am standing for prime minister - isn't that amazing? I was born in this country but I didn't grow up here," she said.

"That is amazing. And I don't understand why people want to ignore all of the good things and only focus on the bad things and use the bad things to tell the story."

One source, who backed one of Ms Badenoch's rivals in the leadership election, described her as "the new darling of the right".

Often labelled a "culture warrior" - a tag she disputes - she has been outspoken on issues like gender-neutral toilets (she is against them).

In a leadership speech, she vowed to "discard the priorities of Twitter and focus on people's priorities instead", adding: "We have been in the grip of an underlying economic, social, cultural and intellectual malaise."

Members of the government's own LGBT+ advisory panel called for Ms Badenoch to stand aside over the failure to deliver on the 2019 manifesto pledge to ban so-called conversion therapy.

Ms Badenoch has said she is committed to banning the practice, which aims to change sexual orientation or gender identity, though the plans have been repeatedly delayed.

She was also a driving force behind the government's decision to implement a section 35 order to block Scotland's Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which would allow people in Scotland to self-identify their gender.

In February, she accused the Post Office chair she sacked of trying to "seek revenge" by "making up" claims he been told to delay compensation payments for sub-postmasters affected by the Horizon IT scandal.

Henry Staunton said he had been told to stall payouts to allow the government to "limp into the election", apparently to help state finances.

Ms Badenoch has not shied away from fiery public clashes with MPs on her own side - including when she rejected calls to make it illegal to discriminate against people going through the menopause.

While giving evidence to the Women Equalities Committee, she told committee chair Caroline Nokes, a fellow Tory MP, "loads of people" wanted to use equalities law as "a tool for different personal agendas and interests".

Correction 17th November 2022: An earlier version of this article reported that Kemi Badenoch's team had taped handwritten "men" and "ladies" signs on the gender neutral toilet doors at her campaign launch venue in July. Evidence subsequently emerged that these signs had been in place before the event and so we have removed this line from our story.