Kemi Badenoch takes over as leader of the British Conservatives

Kemi Badenoch won the race to become the new leader of Britain’s Conservative Party on Saturday, vowing to return the once-dominant party to its founding principles to win back voters who handed the Conservatives their worst election defeat in July.

Badenoch, 44, replaces former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and has pledged to lead the party through a period of renewal, saying it has moved towards the political center, “ruling from the left” and must return to its traditional ideas.

Badenoch, the first black leader of a major political party in Britain, will set a right-wing tone in the role, likely to support policies aimed at shrinking the state and challenging what she sees as institutional left-wing thinking.

“It’s time to tell the truth,” she told the audience at the end of the months-long leadership contest, promising to answer major questions about how the Conservatives lost the July election so badly.

“It’s time to get to work, time to renew your competences.”

Badenoch becomes the fifth Conservative leader since mid-2016, after 53,806 party members voted for her in the final stage of a long contest in which 53,806 party members voted for her over former immigration minister Robert Jenrick. Jenrick won 41,388 votes.

With outspoken views on everything from what he calls identity politics to the value of officials, Badenoch attracts both ardent admirers and detractors. It is certain to shock the Conservatives, whose quota of lawmakers in the 650-seat parliament fell to 121 in July from 365 seats in 2019.

Amid a rocky start for the Labor government following the party’s landslide election, some Conservatives are increasingly optimistic that they will be able to regain power at the next election, which must be held in 2029.

But some more centrist Conservatives fear that Badenoch could alienate not only the more moderate wing of the party, but also some voters who were won over by the centrist Liberal Democrats in the last election.

The former trade minister’s time in government was often marked by disputes with the media, celebrities and her own officials. But her no-nonsense approach also won many supporters, including members of the Conservative Party who chose her over Jenrick.

“The task before us is difficult but simple. Our first duty, as His Majesty’s loyal opposition, is to hold the Labor government to account,” she told party members.

“Our second goal is no less important: it is to prepare in the next few years to serve as a government.”