Following a months-long contest, former business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch has been elected leader of the Conservative Party on Saturday (2 November).
Badenoch beat former immigration minister Robert Jenrick by over 12,000 votes. According to the BBC, this ranks as the closest Conservative leadership elections since members were able to vote
The North West Essex MP won with 56.5% of the membership vote, below the levels of support that Liz Truss, David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith secured in their successful campaigns.
In her victory speech, she said that it was time to “renew” the Conservative Party, and suggested that Jenrick would have a “key role in our party for years to come”.
First appointments
Earlier today, Badenoch made her first appointments to her shadow cabinet.
As reported by Sky News, former junior ministers Nigel Huddleston and Dominic Johnson have been selected as joint chairmen of the party.
Replacing Daventry MP Stuart Andrew as chief whip, meanwhile, is MP for Castle Point Rebecca Harris. Andrew wrote on Twitter/X:
“It has been an honour and a privilege to serve as the Conservative Party chief whip.
“[Harris] is a great friend and a brilliant whip. I wish her all the best in the role.”
Former foreign secretary and fellow leadership contender James Cleverly has ruled himself out of taking a frontbench job in an interview with the FT.
Badenoch’s trade record
As business and trade secretary, Badenoch emphasised the importance of achieving free trade agreements (FTAs) but was keen to emphasise quality over quantity.
In a GB News Q&A in 2022, she said:
“Trade deals are like the motorway. It is fantastic when you get them built. But if cars aren’t going back and forth, then you might as well not have built them. The going back and forth are the exports and investments.”
She oversaw the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) while in the role.
She also continued negotiations with India over a trade deal – though she refused to compromise on visa rules for Indian workers as a makeweight for a deal that has still yet to come to fruition under successive administrations.
Brexit
Badenoch supported the ‘leave’ side during the Brexit referendum, but told the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in a speech earlier this year that there had been a “dereliction of duty” by former Conservative prime minister David Cameron in preparing for it.
“One of the most disappointing things was becoming an MP a year later and finding out there had been no plans made about how this was going to happen.”
Despite her backing for Brexit, she decelerated efforts by others to scrap large volumes of EU-era legislation, stating:
“We are not arsonists. What we want to do is get rid of laws we don’t want and there's a process for that.”
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