Kemi Badenoch became the new leader of Conservatives and the first Black woman to head a major British political party on Saturday, November 2, 2024.

Badenoch made history after winning a leadership contest on a promise to return the party to its founding principles.

44-year-old Badenoch 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.

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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.

A student, Imani Samuels, told Reuters: “They (the Conservative Party) are not more approachable because of the fact that they’ve now got a Black person.

“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.

The Star