Kemi Badenoch becomes new Conservative Party leader

Kemi Badenoch has been crowned as the new Conservative Party leader and comes as the four-month race to replace Rishi Sunak reaches the finish line.

Never afraid to ruffle any feathers, Badenoch’s willingness to say what others may regard as unsayable has made her the darling of the Tory grassroots.

Badenoch received 53,806 votes while Robert Jenrick had 41,388 votes. Turnout of the 131,680 eligible electors was 72.8% and there were 655 rejected ballots.

In her acceptance speech, Badenoch said the Tories have to be ‘honest’ about the ‘fact we made mistakes’ and ‘the fact that we let standards slip’.

She also paid tribute to her rival Jenrick and said the party’s task was ‘tough but simple’.

The party now looks forward to try and recover from the disastrous July general election which saw the party return only 121 MPs.

The Tories lost seats to Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK in the July election.

Badenoch has described the party as a ‘family’ and said that it is ‘much more to me than a membership organisation’.

Rishi Sunak congratulated Badenoch on becoming Conservative leader, urging the party to unite behind her.

He said: ‘Congratulations to Kemi Badenoch on being elected Conservative Party leader.

‘I know that she will be a superb leader of our great party. She will renew our party, stand up for Conservative values, and take the fight to Labour.

‘Let’s unite behind her.’

Meanwhile Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer congratulated Badenoch on becoming the ‘first black leader of a Westminster party’.

In the original lineup for Tory leader was Dame Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly, who spent the summer campaigning alongside Badenoch and Jenrick.

Dame Priti and Stride were the first two contenders to be eliminated in September, leaving four by the time the party gathered in Birmingham for conference.

But both Badenoch and Jenrick found themselves embroiled at the centre of rows during conference.

Badenoch ended up asserting her support for maternity pay after comments caused controversy.

Meanwhile, Jenrick faced heat from other leadership rivals over claims he made about UK special forces.

For a time it seemed like Cleverly was out on top following party conference which saw Tugendhat knocked out.

So there was some surprise when Cleverly did not make the final two, securing only 37 votes compared with Jenrick’s 41 and Badenoch’s 42.

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