Kemi Badenoch

Biography

Kemi Badenoch was born Olukemi Adegoke in Wimbledon, London, in 1980 to Nigerian parents, a doctor and a physiology professor, and grew up mainly in Lagos and partly in the United States. At sixteen she returned to Britain, took A-levels at a sixth-form college in Morden while working at McDonald's, and went on to earn a master's degree in computer systems engineering from the University of Sussex in 2003 and a law degree from Birkbeck, University of London, in 2009.

She worked as a software engineer at Logica, then as a systems analyst at the Royal Bank of Scotland, as an associate director at the private bank Coutts, and as digital director of The Spectator. She joined the Conservative Party in 2005, stood unsuccessfully in Dulwich and West Norwood in 2010, and entered the London Assembly in 2015 as a replacement list member. A supporter of Brexit, she was elected MP for Saffron Walden in 2017.

Under Boris Johnson she served as a junior minister for children and families, as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, and as minister for equalities and for local government, before resigning in July 2022 in protest at Johnson's leadership. She stood in the summer 2022 leadership contest and was eliminated in the fourth round. Liz Truss appointed her international trade secretary, and under Rishi Sunak she added the women and equalities brief and from February 2023 led the new Department for Business and Trade, signing the agreement for Britain to join the Trans-Pacific trade partnership.

After the Conservatives lost the 2024 general election, in which she held the redrawn seat of North West Essex, she was briefly shadow housing secretary. She won the party leadership election against Robert Jenrick and on 2 November 2024 became Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition.