Who is Kemi Badenoch and how has she performed as Tory leader?

The Leader of the Opposition gave the speech on Sunday, having faced criticism from the right of her party with members said to be leaving in favour of Reform, including her own former leadership campaign donor.

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The 45-year-old has always been pro law and order, and used characteristically firm language on the back of the Manchester synagogue attack but also during a testing time for her leadership.

A recent YouGov poll has shown that only 9 per cent see Ms Badenoch as a prime minister in waiting, while another study shows that fewer than 25 per cent think she is doing a good job.

In the past few days, she has sought to mark herself out from Nigel Farage after the Reform leader refused to refute Donald Trump’s uncredited claims about paracetamol use in pregnancy.

But whether her stances and conference speech will be enough for members to keep the faith in her against poor polling performance remains to be seen.

Who is Kemi Badenoch?

It has been almost one year since Ms Badenoch succeeded former prime minister Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader and became the first black leader of any major UK political party.

Born Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke in Wimbledon, south west London, to Nigerian parents in 1980, Ms Badenoch grew up partly in Lagos and in the US - where her mother lectured.

She moved back to the UK when she was 16 and studied for her A levels in Morden, south London, and then worked various jobs, including a stint at McDonald’s. Previously, she has described being alone in London with only £100 to her name.

After graduating from Birkbeck university and the University of Sussex, she pursued a career in finance, alongside her developing political aspirations.

She stood unsuccessfully as a Tory MP candidate in 2010 but became a London Assembly member in 2016 and, that same year, voted for the UK to leave the European Union.

In 2017, she succeeded the retiring Alan Haselhurst as MP for Saffron Walden, a constituency which was last year renamed as North West Essex.

Ms Badenoch no longer has a Nigerian passport and says she does not consider herself to be Nigerian.

Who is she married to?

Kemi married her husband Hamish Badenoch in 2012. The banker, who has also stood for the Tories in elections, was also born in Wimbledon.

The pair met in 2009 at the Dulwich and West Norwood Conservative Club. They have two sons and a daughter, aged six to 13.

Tory peer Lord Ashcroft said of the pair: "Hamish and she are like a team. He put her career ahead of his own. If he said to her that he didn't think her being the leader would work for the family, she wouldn't do it."

What are Kemi Badenoch’s values?

Ms Badenoch is an admirer of Margaret Thatcher and has blamed left-wing politics for Nigeria’s poverty. During her rise, she has been considered a right-wing voice within the Tory contingent and served as Rishi Sunak’s business secretary and equalities secretary.

Under Liz Truss, she was secretary for international trade - although she lost out to the then PM in her quest to succeed Boris Johnson as party leader.

During her 2024 campaign to become party leader, Ms Badenoch said that conservatism was in crisis, having seen her party lose its majority to Labour.

Polarising comments she has made include:

• Stating in 2024 that maternity pay is “excessive,”
• Telling the Tory conference that up to 10 per cent of civil servants are "very, very bad … should-be-in prison bad,"
• "If elected, I will develop the fullest and most detailed plan to control immigration that any political party has ever proposed," she said on immigration,
• And at the 2025 Conservative Party conference, she called pro-Palestine marches “carnivals of hatred.”

Ms Badenoch has also attracted criticism from Nigeria for comments that have been perceived to have been negative towards her parents’ homeland.

She told the BBC: “When I say I am a conservative, it’s not just for fun, it’s because I strongly believe in law and order. I strongly believe in personal responsibility, strongly believe in a government getting involved in things it doesn’t need to, as quite often it messes things up.”

How has she done as Tory Party leader?

Ms Badenoch is facing testing times with members defecting to Reform, not least Danny Kruger who declared the Conservatives “finished” upon jumping ship.

Around 16 per cent of Brits have recently said they would vote Tory, which puts the party behind Reform (29 per cent) and Labour (21 per cent).

Under Ms Badenoch, the Conservatives have appeared increasingly tough on immigration and have distanced themselves from the climate reform backed by old PM Boris Johnson.

But her Tory election rival Robert Jenrick has said the party has not changed enough under her.

He said: “We’ve got to change the Conservative Party if it’s going to survive.

“And it’s quite obvious that it hasn’t changed enough in the last year. There’s got to be a fundamentally different party.”

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who sits on the influential 1922 committee, was more positive in an interview with GB News in August.

He said: “I think we’ve really got to wait and see, give her a little bit more space, give her a little bit of airtime over the party conference and see how that all shakes out.”

Tory peer Lord Houchen said that she needed to go on the attack.

“I think Kemi ultimately has an issue at the minute of not being heard, not listened to because the Conservative Party is still reeling from the general election defeat so the public aren’t really paying attention at the minute,” he said. “She has been dealt a tough hand.”