LONDON – The first black woman to lead a major UK political party, Kemi Badenoch is an optimistic and outspoken libertarian who believes the British state is broken – and that she is the one to fix it with smaller government and radical new ideas .

The the new leader of the centre-right Conservative Party in Great Britain he was born Olukemi Adegoke in London in 1980 to wealthy Nigerian parents – a doctor and an academic – and spent much of his childhood in the West African country.

She said the experience of the economic and social upheavals in Nigeria shaped her political vision.

“I grew up somewhere where the lights didn’t come on, where we ran out of fuel frequently, despite being an oil-producing country,” Badenoch told the BBC last week.

“I don’t take what we have in this country for granted,” she said. “I meet a lot of people who assume things are good here because things are good here and always will be. They don’t realize how much work and sacrifice it took to get that.”

Returning to the UK aged 16 during a period of turmoil in Nigeria, she worked part-time at McDonalds while finishing school, then studied computer systems engineering at the University of Sussex. He later earned a law degree and worked in financial services.

In 2012, she married banker Hamish Badenoch, with whom she has three children.

She was elected to the London Assembly in 2015 and to Parliament in 2017. She held a number of government posts in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s 2019-22 government before becoming part of a mass ministerial exodus in July 2022 because of a series of ethics. scandals that triggered Johnson’s downfall.

Badenoch unsuccessfully ran to succeed Johnson, raising his profile in the process. She was appointed commerce secretary in the 49-day government of Prime Minister Liz Trussand business secretary under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

She retained her seat in Parliament in National elections in Julywhich saw the Labor Party win a huge majority and the Conservatives reduced to 121 MPs in the 650-seat House of Commons.

Like many Tories, Badenoch idolizes Margaret Thatcher, the party’s first female leader, who transformed Britain with her free-market policies in the 1980s. Citing her engineering background as proof that she is a problem-solver, she presents herself as a disruptive, advocating a free-market, low-tax economy and promising to “rewire, reboot and reprogram” the British state.

A critic of multiculturalism and a self-proclaimed foe of the revival, Badenoch is an opponent of “identity politics”, gender-neutral bathrooms and government plans to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions.

Supporters believe her charismatic and outspoken style is just what the Conservative Party needs to turn it around the worst electoral defeat ever. During her leadership campaign, her supporters wore T-shirts that read, “Be Kemi.”

Critics say Badenoch has clashed with colleagues and civil servants and has a tendency to make hasty statements and cause unnecessary fights. During the leadership campaign, she drew criticism for saying that “not all cultures are equally valid” and for suggesting that maternity pay was excessive – although she later backtracked on that claim.

“I speak my mind,” she told the BBC. “And I’m telling the truth.”