UK’s opposition Conservatives name right-wing Kemi Badenoch as new leader

LONDON — The U.K.’s opposition Conservative Party on Saturday named right-wing Kemi Badenoch as its new leader, closing a long-drawn-out runoff after the Tories’ landslide electoral defeat ushered in 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, giving her maiden speech as party leader shortly after the results were announced.

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

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

Badenoch’s victory confirms a further shift to the right for the U.K.’s oldest political party, suggesting it may take a more hardline approach toward immigration, climate measures and culture politics 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 intended to hurt their least favorite figure had instead backfired on former frontrunner and more centrist contender James Cleverly.

The Conservatives suffered a bruising defeat in the U.K.’s July 4 general election, when Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government secured a landslide victory as voters grew weary of ongoing leadership changes and political infighting at the tail end of 14 years of Tory rule.

Badenoch said the Conservatives had to acknowledge their previous errors and change course.

“Our party is critical to the success of our country. But to be heard, we have to be honest. Honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we left standards slip,” 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 to give our party and our country the new start that they deserve. It is time to get down to business. It is time to renew,” Badenoch added.

Her strong political views have courted controversy over the years, however, with recent comments about maternity pay having “gone too far” sparking a backlash, while her suggestion 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 within the party, making regaining control of the U.K.’s borders a central tenet of his leadership pitch.

The 42-year-ol former lawyer resigned from his role as immigration minister in December 2023, insisting that Sunak’s Rwanda legislation did not go far enough. He further vowed to withdraw Britain from the European Convention of Human Rights to boost deportations and has taken increasingly hard-line — and at times controversial — stances.

The leadership win is unlikely to have any immediate impact on the current government, with Labour holding its second-largest parliamentary majority in history.

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

Sunak said Badenoch would be a “superb leader” and urged his party to unite behind her.

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

A reinvigorated opposition party will be better placed to apply pressure on Starmer — who described the election of the first Black leader of a Westminster party as a “proud moment” for the country and said he is looking forward to working with her “in the interests of the British people” — and rebuke some of his key policies.

“Our first responsibility as his majesty’s loyal government is to hold this Labour government to account. Our second is not less important: it is to prepare over the course of the next few years for government,” Badenoch said Saturday.

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