…Will She Make History?
The race to succeed Boris Johnson as the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK), has been blown wide open as about 10 candidates, including Nigerian-born Kemi Badenoch have so far thrown their hat into the ring, The New Diplomat reports.
Poised to become the first UK Prime Minister of African descent, Badenoch is a member of the Conservative Party, who had served as Minister of State for Local Government, Faith and Communities and Minister of State for Equalities between 2021 and 2022.
The Prime Minister position became vacant following the resignation of Johnson from the position on Thursday bringing an acrimonious end to a nearly three-year premiership that has been beset by controversy and scandal.
The New Diplomat had earlier reported that Johnson will hang on as PM till a successor is announced by the Tory.
Since the development, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt; Pakistani-origin former Health Secretary Sajid Javid; Goan-origin Attorney General Suella Braverman; Iraqi-origin Nadhim Zahawi; Nigerian-origin Kemi Bedanoch and Tory backbencher Tom Tugendhat; British Indian former Cabinet minister Rishi Sunak; Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt have declared their intention to vie for the position.
After launching her bid last week, a former Cabinet minister Michael Gove – who was dramatically sacked by Johnson recently – was among the first top politicians in the UK that backed Badenoch.
Commenting on Gove’s support for Badenoch, one commentator wrote in the Spectator “It is not every day that someone throws their weight behind someone who was their junior minister until a few days ago. Gove makes a typically eloquent case. But the jump for Badenoch from being a minister of state to being prime minister would be immense.”
“What is certain, though, is that Badenoch is establishing herself as a major force in this race. She is clearly going to be a significant figure in the party in the coming years.”
Gove, who said he has worked with Kemi since before she became an MP and served alongside her in Government, said she is “brave, principled, brilliant and kind.” He argued that those are the qualities that are needed in any UK Prime Minister willing to navigate the country past its current woes — record inflation, energy crisis and security risks.
But Badenoch has some strong rival candidates to overcome if she must emerge as the first black Prime Minister of the UK. They include early favourite former finance minister Rishi Sunak, who launched his campaign Friday after helping to kick-start the cabinet revolt that led to Johnson’s forced resignation Thursday.
However, while Sunak is the early front runner, he is the only candidate who has played down the prospect of imminent tax cuts, saying the adoption of “comforting fairy tales” would leave future generations worse off. His notion has since been rejected by many loyalists of rival candidates.
Also, Hunt, who emerged second in the last Tory leadership race when he lost to Boris Johnson, is also a strong contender in the race. His plan to reduce corporation tax to 15 per cent in the Budget later this year if elected has been widely accepted, an indication that he might somehow come top in the race.
Only on Monday, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, a senior Cabinet minister became one of the late entrants to the race. She is expected to be a front-runner in the already crowded race. Truss promised to “start cutting taxes from day one” to help with the cost of living.
Meanwhile, the timetable for the leadership contest is expected to be announced next week after a meeting on Monday of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbench MPs, who set the rules for the race.
It will be a two-stage process, with Conservative MPs whittling down the field to two candidates through successive rounds of voting, before the wider Tory party membership elect their winner.
It is expected that the new Conservative Party leader would be known by early September.
In 2012, Badenoch unsuccessfully contested a seat on the London Assembly. Three years later, she was selected as a London Assembly member. Badenoch supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum on EU membership.
She was elected for Saffron Walden at the 2017 general election. After Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in July 2019, Badenoch was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families.
In the February 2020 reshuffle, she was appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities. In September 2021, she was promoted to Minister of State for Equalities and appointed Minister of State for Local Government, Faith and Communities.
