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This week’s Conservative Party conference saw the Kemi Badenoch further cement her position at the helm of her party. But can her increased personal popularity help a party that is still lagging behind Reform UK in the polls?
The daughter of a GP and a professor of physiology, Kemi Badenoch was born in Wimbledon but grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. At the age of 16, she moved to London where she worked various jobs including at McDonalds. She studied at Sussex University and it was an introduction to identity politics there that she credits with confirming her conservatism.
After graduating, she worked as a software engineer, a systems analyst before embarking on a career in finance. In 2015 she became digital director at the Spectator magazine.
In 2005, aged 25, she joined the Conservative Party and in 2015 she became a member of the London Assembly. At the 2017 snap general election she successfully ran to be Conservative MP for Saffron Waldon in Essex.
After landing a number of ministerial roles under Boris Johnson she unexpectedly stood for Party Leader when he stood down as Prime Minister in 2022. She came fourth in that contest but ultimately won the leadership contest after the Labour landslide General Election result of 2024.
This week she promised to scrap inheritance tax on family homes, proposed a new ‘Britannia Shield’ missile defence system and ruled out a pact with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK But can she overcome the odds and return the Conservative Party to power?
Production:
Presenter: Mark Coles
Producers: Tom Gillett, Bethan Ashmead Latham
Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele, Sabine Schereck
Technical Producer: James Beard
Editor: Justine Lang
