Britain’s opposition conservatives appoint the right-wing Kemi Badenoch as new leader

LONDON – Britain’s opposition Conservative Party named right-wing Kemi Badenoch as its new leader on Saturday, ending a long-running rout after the Tories’ landslide election defeat heralded a moment of reckoning for the party.

Badenoch ousted Robert Jenrick to secure the top job, replacing outgoing leader and former prime minister Rishi Sunak.

“It is the most enormous honor to be elected to this role,” Badenoch said, delivering his maiden speech as party leader shortly after the results were announced.

The decision follows a three-month contest in which an initial shortlist of six candidates was whittled down to two to four rounds of voting by Tory Members of Parliament (MP).

The ultimate winner was decided by members of the Conservative Party, with Badenoch receiving 53,806 votes to Jenrick’s 41,388. The turnout was 72.8%.

Badenoch’s victory confirms a further shift to the right for Britain’s oldest political party, suggesting it may take a more hard-line approach to immigration, climate action and cultural policy in opposition.

Badenoch and fellow right-wing candidate Jenrick were seen as unlikely opponents in the final vote, with some MPs suggesting that tactical voting aimed at damaging their least favorite figure had instead backfired on former front-runner and more centrist candidate James Cleverly.

The Conservatives suffered a crushing defeat in Britain’s general election on July 4 as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor government secured a landslide victory as voters grew weary of ongoing leadership changes and political infighting at the end of 14 years of Tory rule.

Badenoch said the Conservatives needed to acknowledge their past mistakes and change course.

“Our party is essential to the success of our country. But to be heard, we must be honest. Honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we abandoned standards,” she stressed on Saturday.

“The time has come to tell the truth, to stand up for our principles, to plan for our future. To reset our politics and our thinking and give our party and our country the fresh start they deserve. It’s time to go underway, it’s time to renew,” Badenoch added.

However, her strong political views have sparked controversy over the years, with recent comments about maternity pay having “gone too far” sparked a backlash while her proposal that “not all cultures are equally valid” reinforced her image as a so-called culture warrior.

Badenoch’s opponent Jenrick was once a close ally of Sunak, who began his political career as a centrist figure. He has since aligned himself with the right wing of the party, making regaining control of Britain’s borders a central tenet of his leadership.

The 42-year-old former lawyer resigned from his role as immigration minister in December 2023, insisting that Sunak’s Rwanda legislation did not go far enough. He also promised to pull Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights to boost deportations and has taken increasingly hard-line – and sometimes controversial – positions.

The leadership victory is unlikely to have any immediate impact on the current government, where Labor has its second largest parliamentary majority in history.

It is also possible that the Tories’ new leader will no longer be in place when Britain votes for its next government in up to five years.

Sunak said Badenoch would be an “excellent leader” and urged her party to unite behind her.

“She will renew our party, stand up for conservative values ​​and take on Labour,” he wrote in a post on social media.

A revived opposition party will be better able to put pressure on Starmer – who described the election of the first black leader of a Westminster party as a “proud moment” for the country – and rebuke some of his key policies.

“Our first responsibility as His Majesty’s Loyal Government is to hold this Labor government to account. Our second is no less important: it is to prepare over the next few years for government,” Badenoch said on Saturday.

The return of Brexiter Nigel Farage to the political fray in June, along with surprise election gains for his Reform UK Party, could see the Conservatives move further to the right to stem further electoral losses.