Sussex University graduate Kemi Badenoch has won the contest to succeed Rishi Sunak as the leader of the Conservative Party.
The 44-year-old completed a masters degree in systems engineering at the university in 2003.
She has said that she became interested in politics while a student on the Falmer campus.
Mrs Badenoch beat Robert Jenrick in the election to become leader of the official opposition in the House of Commons.
She served as a cabinet minister under Mr Sunak and Liz Truss and was one of the many government ministers whose resignations forced Boris Johnson to quit as Prime Minister.
Mrs Badenoch has promised to make significant changes to her party after it lost so many seats in the general election in July.
She said today that the Tories now need to be honest about the fact that “we made mistakes”.
And she said that it was time to reset “our politics” and give the country a “new start” – it was “time to get down to business, time to renew”.
Mrs Badenoch is not the only frontbencher in the Commons to have graduated from Sussex. The Labour cabinet also includes two former Falmer students – Hilary Benn and the Hove and Portslade MP Peter Kyle.
Congratulations Kemi.
With the Conservatives in the lead (albeit one poll only), winning council seats in the last few weeks … steady progress is being made.
*Regression
I have been enjoyed some of Ms Badenoch’s soundbites so far which have been very concerning, including offensive comments about autistic children, criticising the “economic advantages and protections” afforded to neurodiverse diagnosis – taking a direct jab at the Equality Act. Morally disagreeable.
She has also described maternity pay as “excessive” at £172 a week, despite maternity pay significantly falling short of covering basic living expenses, especially amidst the rising cost of living. Recent surveys reveal that mothers often skip meals, reduce heating, and cut short their maternity leave to cope financially. Organisations like UNISON and Maternity Action advocate raising SMP to match the national minimum wage, enabling new mothers to maintain basic standards of living.
Oh, and she called the minimum wage harmful. These are baseless, especially since the minimum wage is broadly regarded as a crucial tool in reducing income inequality and improving workers’ standards of living. Her stance is disconnected from the challenges of low-wage earners (a quality I’ve frequently found with Conservative MPs), and disingenuously fails to note that the minimum wage has been instrumental in boosting incomes for the lowest-paid and has not led to widespread job losses as previously feared.
No wonder the party is generally disliked by anyone under the age of 60 and anyone who has a moral compass.
I wonder who’ll replace her.
Talking about replacement already, but why?
It would be about on track with recent history, with seven leaders in a very short period of time, including Liz Truss, who infamously only lasted 49 days, less than a head of lettuce took to rot. You have to look back to 1827’s George Canning, who served for 119 days, three times longer – and that’s only because he died in office from natural causes.
Because if she doesn’t win the next General Election, the Tories will kick her out. Overturning such a massive majority isn’t going to be easy, especially if Reform stay strong. It’s the next Tory leader that is likely to win an election not her. So who’s going to replace her?
Nigel Fromage
Congrats Kemi. Slow and steady win the race.
I fail to understand how anyone from a minority group (be it either based on ethnicity or sexual orientation) can be associated with this party?
But I guess that if you’re monied or middle class then scruples and morality in British politics are always somewhat malleable? This is also not just exclusively a conservative problem but across the whole political spectrum.
What I find offensive as someone from an ethnic background, is that she is tarred with the brush of the last governments policy towards asylum seekers (my family were refugees) But then politicians often choose to forget their roots when courting popular opinion. I guess it’s “S%d you Jack. I’m alright, lets pull up the drawbridge”
Hi Bob – there is a big difference between refugees and economic migrants. UK is now full.
Yes Chris, I fully accept that. But a lot of their views are based on very dubious moral values when it comes to respect for basic human rights and respect for human life.
Thank you Geoff. My sentiments precisely. I love this “UK is now full” rhetoric.
Is that akin to a bus packed with passengers? It’s just a scapegoating exercise. I took a stroll along the seafront earlier. I can’t recall droves of people packed like sardines teetering on the shoreline and toppling into the sea.
I am not sure how any woman can be associated with the Labour Party. Why have they still had no woman leader? Surely not all female
Labour women MPs can be as dreadful as Angela Rayner and they must have some decent women that could have stood as leader. Or as JK Rowling thinks does the Labour Party just have a problem with women.
Ah yes, Dianne Abbot seems to spring to mind.
Maybe one day in her fevered dreams, she might replace Kier Starmer?
Indeed, sussex uni. bred interesting alumni after the red paint affair in 1969…
What is system engineering?
Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field that designs, integrates, and manages complex systems over their life cycles. It involves a holistic approach to problem-solving, ensuring that all aspects of a project—technical, managerial, and organizational—are considered.
Shows how diverse Britain is as this couldn’t happen in the US. To be the leader of the country ( I know she’s not and is unlikely to be ) you have to be born there.
Last time I checked London was in the UK.
I was just reading a bit more about Mrs Badenoch and it turns out the reason she was inspired to join politics when she attended Sussex uni was because she was offended by left wing people in campus. Seems she took offense to people who were overly zealous with their new found adulthood and realisation that they could be the change… This offended her as she thought they were all entitled poshos? I’m not making it up believe it or not!
That is quite funny actually, I respect the power move on her part.
Yeah TBF it is kind of funny but at the same time I don’t think that’s how you should set your political compass.
She’s suggesting now that the conservatives failed because they acted like labour (would have), which doesn’t make a lot of sense. To quote a BBC article “Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said her approach to the economy would be “completely the opposite” to that of Chancellor Rachel Reeves
This seems to suggests she will just be taking an opposite stance to labour policy on principle. From my view this is basically the conservatives MO anyway, when they’re not just making ideology based policies and/or being blatantly corrupt.
It’s a very good point, “we the opposition will act in opposition” is just tautological nonsense!
I’ve never been a fan of adversarial politics; have a methodology about how’d you like to achieve a goal, but I completely agree with you, just being adversial for being the sake for being opposed is not a great decision for setting your political standpoint.
Well, the party has decided. Will be watching with interest.
Good luck to her. Whatever her views she can’t be any worst than the sleazy, white, male and pale Labour lot. The papers were saying this weekend that the reason they taxed jobs, pensioners and kiddies education was because they decided not to bring taxes on online betting in line with the rest of much of the world as the online betting industry have given hundreds of thousands of pounds of bungs to the Labour Party (but no dolce and gabana jeans or glasses). £36,000 alone to Rachel Reeve’s office.
That’s not a bad point if true. I remember watching BBC parliament when a handful of mainly conservatives MPs discussed the tax arrangements around taxing betting companies and their (the betting companies) preference to being offshore and avoiding tax. I believe nothing came of it even though it seemed like a brilliant time to generate tax from these companies. That would have been about 10 years ago or more. That’s 10 years of increased tax revenue from a sector that’s exploded over the last 10 years. I wouldn’t blame the “corrupt” labour party for not solving this issue in a few months.
Oh, history has certainly shown whenever the “better the devil we don’t know” argument has been upheld in the world, it has proven to be incorrect.
Keir Starmer is doing brilliantly then? Think so far we would all have been better off under the Tories. Especially farmers, small businesses, and generally those who are the life blood of the country, ie those who are working in the private sector as opposed to those who can’t be bothered to work. Or those in the public sector claiming exorbitant pay rises for less productivity. At this rate we won’t be able to afford any illegal immigrants. The country will be bankrupt. Typical Labour.
Fourteen years prove otherwise.