Kemi Badenoch by Michael Ashcroft

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16 July 2024

During the Conservative Party leadership contest in the
summer of 2022, Kemi Badenoch made an immediate
impression on the public as a politician with robust
views and a strong personality. Although only a junior
minister at the time, she was marked out as a rising
star and, having exited the race after the fourth ballot,
even as a potential future leader. Since September 2022,
she has served in the cabinets of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak,
combining her post as the Secretary of State for Business
and Trade with that of the Minister for Women and
Equalities.
Badenoch’s centre-right instincts and self-declared
admiration for Margaret Thatcher have helped to
guarantee that her popularity among the grassroots of her
party remains high, yet her background is unusual by
Westminster’s standards. Having been born in London and
raised in Nigeria, she describes herself as ‘to all intents and
purposes a first-generation immigrant’.
So what makes Badenoch tick? How has she achieved
Cabinet rank so quickly? Could she succeed Rishi Sunak
as Tory leader? And what would be the implications for
the direction of the party, were this to happen?
In this meticulously researched biography, Michael
Ashcroft charts Badenoch’s fascinating course from
relative obscurity to being hailed in some quarters
as the saviour of conservatism in the UK.