The New Face of British Conservatism is Black—and Female | The Nation
The London-born daughter of Nigerian parents presides over the ruins of 14 years of Tory rule. Can her brand of nativism-lite bring the party out of the wilderness?
London—In December 2006—a year into David Cameron’s tenure as leader of Her Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition—Kemi Adegoke, a 26-year-old computer systems analyst for a bank, contributed to an Observer magazine feature on why it was “cool to be Conservative.” Acknowledging that as “a black African woman” she may not “fit the image” of a “stereotypical” Tory party member, Adegoke, who moved to Britain a decade earlier having grown up in Lagos, Nigeria, told the reporter she did not think “every problem in the country is down to [Tony] Blair and the Labour Party.” She believed, simply, that “the Conservatives would do a much better job of running the country.”
Now, Kemi Badenoch, married to a banker she met as a young Conservative activist, sits as member of Parliament for North West Essex, and finds herself running the party that, following 14 years in government, was unceremoniously ejected from office in July this year. In a selection process where less than 100,000 dues-paying Tory supporters voted on who should replace former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as head of the party, the former business secretary beat ex–immigration minister Robert Jenrick—also residing on the Tories’ right flank—to become the sixth leader in nine years.
.jpg)
