Kemi Badenoch

Kemi Badenoch has officially become Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Conservative Party, beating Robert Jenrick at the members’ vote stage of the contest. Her election as leader marks the first black woman in Britain to lead a political party.

She started appointing her shadow cabinet on 4th November, including a Shadow Chancellor, Chief Whip, Party Chairmen, a Shadow Education Secretary and a Shadow Foreign Secretary.

Familiar faces returning to the frontbench include Mel Stride as Shadow Chancellor and Priti Patel as Shadow Foreign Secretary, both of whom unsuccessfully ran in the 2024 Conservative leadership election.

In one of her first interviews with the national media as leader of the opposition, she criticised the way ‘Partygate’ had been ‘overblown’ by the media at the time. Her platform during the leadership election consisted of criticising the way the Conservatives had conducted their tax and immigration policy, pledging to fix it as leader.

Her main rival for the leadership, Robert Jenrick, took a hardline stance on immigration during the contest as he attempted to shore up the right wing of the party as well as the Tory membership base.

Badenoch is the current Member of Parliament for North West Essex and has been an MP since 2017.

Her rise to leader of the Conservatives comes after one of their biggest general election defeats in history, earlier in July. Rishi Sunak, the former Prime Minister, has remained as interim leader of the opposition since the loss.

The Conservatives in opposition under Badenoch have pledged to rebuild the party and fight Labour at the next election, targeting them on recent vulnerabilities with the electorate such as the removal of the Winter Fuel Allowance for most pensioners or the recent budget announced by Rachel Reeves.