By Elizabeth Piper and Andrew MacAskill
LONDON (Reuters) -Kemi Badenoch became the Conservatives’ new leader and the first Black woman to a head a major British political party on Saturday, after winning a leadership contest on a promise to return the party to its founding principles.
Badenoch, 44, replaces former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and has pledged to lead the party through a period of renewal after its resounding defeat at Britain’s July election, saying it had veered towards the political centre by “governing from the left”.
On the right of the Conservative Party, Badenoch will likely back policies to shrink the state and challenge what she says is institutional left-wing thinking, saying it is time to defend the principles of free speech, free enterprise and free markets.
Badenoch becomes the Conservatives’ fifth leader since mid-2016 after winning 57% of party members’ votes in the final stage of a months-long contest that saw a field of six whittled down to two. She beat a former immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, who won 43% of votes.
Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed her victory, saying “the first Black leader of a Westminster party is a proud moment for our country”.
Badenoch herself has publicly said she prefers not to focus on her race.
Asked at the Conservative Party conference earlier this year how it would feel to become the first Black woman leader of the party, she said: “I am somebody who wants the colour of our skin to be no more significant than the colour of our hair or the colour of our eyes.”
For some Black voters in London, a city which tends to favour the Labour Party and has a Labour mayor, support for Badenoch will depend on what she does now as leader of the Conservatives.
“They (the Conservative Party) are not more approachable because of the fact that they’ve now got a Black person,” said Imani Samuels, a student. “It will just depend on what she’s doing.”
Asked about Badenoch’s comment on her skin colour, Samuels replied: “She should be proud of that, and she should step forward with her Blackness, because to have such a position and to be Black and a woman should be something she’s very proud to say.”
Vaughan Gething became the first Black leader of the Welsh Labour Party earlier this year, but resigned after just four months as the first minister of Wales after a wave of ministerial resignations in protest over his leadership.
Sunak, who is of Indian origin, became Britain’s first prime minister of colour in October 2022 after winning a race to lead the Conservatives that year.
‘TELL THE TRUTH’
Badenoch promised on Saturday to tackle problems in the party head-on.
“The time has come to tell the truth,” she told the audience at the final count of the leadership contest, promising to answer the main questions over how the Conservatives lost the July election so badly.
“It is time to get down to business, it is time to renew.”
With forthright views on everything from what she calls identity politics to the value of officials, Badenoch attracts both strong admirers and detractors. She is certain to shake up the Conservatives, who saw their contingent of lawmakers in the 650-seat parliament fall in July to 121 from 365 seats in 2019.
With the Labour government off to a bumpy start, some Conservatives are increasingly optimistic that they could win back power at the next election, which has to be held in 2029.
But some more centrist Conservatives worry Badenoch might alienate not only the more moderate wing of the party but also some voters who were won over by the centrist Liberal Democrats at 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 has also won over many supporters, including the Conservative members who chose her over Jenrick.
“The task that stands before us is tough, but simple, our first responsibility as his majesty’s loyal opposition is to hold this Labour government to account,” she told party members.
“Our second is no less important, it is to prepare over the course of the next few years for government.”
