Who is new UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch?

Kemi Badenoch was 16 years old when she arrived back in London from Nigeria. She was alone and only had £100 (€120/$130) in her pocket. Her parents had sent her to the United Kingdom, where she could forge a better life, away from the political chaos of her home country and the military regime. When not at school, she supported herself by working at McDonald's. 

Today, Badenoch, 44, is the next leader of the UK Conservative Party, also known as the Tories. She has blamed left-wing politics for destroying Nigeria, and said this is why she became a fan of the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Badenoch has said she shares Thatcher's "values of self-reliance, personal responsibility and free markets."

Like the Iron Lady, Badenoch is fearless and combative. She believes conservatism is in crisis, and that her party has to get "back on track," having lost sight of its principles and values. For her, this has become clear since the party's general election defeat in July. The Conservatives went from having 365 seats and an absolute majority in parliament to just 121.

Badenoch not shy of controversy

In the months since former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced his intention to step down following the Conservatives' disastrous defeat, Badenoch has dominated the headlines. She, along with Robert Jenrick, a former immigration minister in Sunak's government who, like Badenoch, is part of the party's right-wing, were the final two candidates in the running for party leader.

The mother of three recently said maternity pay was "excessive," which lost her the support of many women. According to UNICEF, the UK is one of the worst performers in Europe when it comes to family policy, and parents already receive limited benefits. Badenoch later clarified her comments, saying that she did "believe in maternity pay."

Her remarks at a fringe event at the Conservative party conference, that 5-10% of civil servants were "very, very bad … should-be-in prison bad," did not go down well with everyone. One trade union head called on Badenoch to withdraw her comments, which she argued were a joke.

The former trade minister, born in London to Nigerian parents and raised in Lagos, also doesn't mince her words when it comes the topic of migration . She believes British voters urgently want migration curbed.

"If elected, I will develop the fullest and most detailed plan to control immigration that any political party has ever proposed," she wrote in a September article for the British daily newspaper The Telegraph.

Badenoch believes that people who come to Britain must integrate and adopt British values, and has proposed implementing an "integration strategy."

"We must never allow our tolerance to be taken advantage of by those who arrive, only to undermine the very values that have allowed us to succeed," she wrote in The Telegraph.

'If you swing at me, I will swing back'

Those who criticize Badenoch have to be ready for a fight. "If you swing at me, I swing back," she said in an interview with Sky News in late September.

She said her father, who was a doctor, instilled in her a sense of "personal responsibility" and taught her that one should not be put off one's path by what other people say.

A computer science graduate from the University of Sussex, Badenoch moved into politics from the banking world. She joined the Conservative Party when she was 25 and quickly climbed the ladder, starting off in the London Assembly and becoming a member of parliament in 2017.

Just two years later, Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed her Parliamentary under secretary of state for children and families. She then rose to become equalities minister in 2021. Johnson's successor, Liz Truss, appointed her as secretary of state for international trade in 2022.

Badenoch has 'authenticity'

Charles Walker, a former Conservative lawmaker, has followed Badenoch's political ascent with interest. He said it was clear from the start that she had "some X factor" and "authenticity," telling DW that people liked her. 

"They really do. She's not a machine politician, and I think that's important," he said, adding that her West African background made her particularly interesting.

However, he isn't convinced that she's the new Thatcher. "It's not just about having strong views. Margaret Thatcher had her views intellectually underpinned and was pragmatic," he said. "I'm afraid quite a lot of our candidates, male and female, who try and channel Thatcher just think it's Thatcher because they've got sharp elbows and strong views that make them the heir to Thatcher, and they've got a loud voice."

Jill Rutter, a researcher at the UK in a Changing Europe think tank, said Badenoch was more likely to get involved in a culture war than her rival candidate, Jenrick. Badenoch has said she is not a "climate change skeptic," but does not back the UK's 2050 net zero emissions target. She also criticized the Labour government's "foolish decision to ban new licenses for North Sea oil production" as "fanatical" in The Telegraph.

'I'm certainly not an arsonist. I'm a Conservative'

As trade minister, Badenoch also showed she could be pragmatic. Though she was in favor of Brexit, she said the government would not revoke EU laws "for the sake of it," provoking the ire of Brexiteers.

"It is not the bonfire of regulations — we are not arsonists," Badenoch later said. "I'm certainly not an arsonist. I'm a Conservative."

For Britain's new Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Badenoch could prove to be an unpleasant opponent. Rutter said Badenoch would likely tackle him "frontally, full throttle" as the Tory's new leader.

But she questioned whether Badenoch had "clear, coherent views on how to make the state smaller," adding there had not been much from her "on substance" regarding health reforms and taxation.

This article was originally written in German.