Kemi Badenoch pledges Tory renewal as she enters leadership race

Kemi Badenoch Vies For Tory Leadership

Kemi Badenoch has pledged to "revitalize" the Conservative Party as she becomes the sixth candidate to officially enter the race for the next Tory leader.

The shadow business secretary expressed her intention to bring her party back to its core beliefs, emphasizing the importance of independence and a renewed belief in capitalism.

The 44-year-old is aiming to become the next Prime Minister after Rishi Sunak. He is consistently leading in polls conducted among members of the Conservative Party.

She is competing against Dame Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat, and James Cleverly to become the next Chancellor. Suella Braverman, the former Home Secretary, has announced that she will not be entering the race.

Ms. Badenoch stated that the Conservative Party should concentrate on excelling in certain areas instead of performing poorly in everything in order to bounce back from their historical election defeat, resulting in only 121 MPs.

In an article in The Times, she stated: "My initiative will begin by concentrating on revamping our party for 2030 - the initial complete year we have the potential to be in power again and the start of a new decade."

According to Ms. Badenoch, under her leadership, the Conservatives will start being honest and go back to their original principles.

Ms. Badenoch argued for the UK to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), a controversial issue that has caused a split within the Conservative party.

Some right-wing individuals believe that withdrawing from the agreement is essential in order to manage immigration and strengthen national security. However, there are those who are concerned that this could harm the United Kingdom's standing on the global stage and jeopardize our legal safeguards.

"We need to reaffirm our faith in the nation state and its primary responsibility to prioritize the well-being of its citizens before we can effectively manage immigration," stated Ms. Badenoch.

Our public services will not be able to completely bounce back from the pandemic if we don't acknowledge that the government should excel in certain areas, rather than performing poorly in everything.

At the core of her promise for "renewal" and "bringing the Conservative group back together" is a firm commitment to supporting capitalism.

She mentioned that our country's prosperity is based on our long-standing skill in harnessing the creativity and hard work of our citizens, as well as the readiness of numerous individuals to exchange uncertainty for potential gain.

"It may have a negative connotation, but our revitalization should also bring about a revitalization for capitalism."

A dedicated Brexit advocate, Ms Badenoch was chosen as an MP in 2017 and in her first speech in Parliament, she praised the Brexit decision as "the ultimate vote of belief in the United Kingdom".

She was appointed to her first significant position in the Boris Johnson administration, where she worked with Mr. Sunak as part of the Treasury team.

Ms. Badenoch became a favorite among conservative members of her party while serving as the women and equalities minister in 2021 due to her strong position on transgender rights.

Before, she ran for Conservative leader when Boris Johnson left and even though she was not very well known at the beginning, she ended up in fourth place.

Ms Badenoch consistently receives higher approval ratings from party members compared to her competitors, according to polls conducted on Conservative Home, a well-liked website among activists.

Before stating her intention to run, Ms. Badenoch alleged that she had been the target of underhanded tactics by her fellow Conservatives. She accused them of spreading false and harmful information about her to the press.

In a recent social media update, Ms Badenoch mentioned that a group supporting a different leadership contender had sent a negative report to reporters and spread false information about her starting a secret campaign website.

Simultaneously, an article featuring her was published in The Spectator magazine. The article mentioned that an online account under the pseudonym "Kemi" on a Nigerian website during the mid-2000s had posted a string of "blunt, occasionally impolite, and frequently challenging" remarks.

The blog post mentioned that the comments didn't affect her honest reputation much and wouldn't harm her chances in the race for leadership.

Conservative MPs who want to be the next leader of the Tory party need the support of at least 10 other MPs and must also raise £200,000 by 2:30 PM on Monday to be able to participate in the initial voting round.

Mr Sunak will continue to be the leader of the Conservative party until a new leader is chosen.

Tory MPs will work to choose a replacement by narrowing down the field of candidates who gain enough support to four by the time of the party's annual conference in Birmingham at the end of September.

Members of Parliament will have a number of votes to reduce the number of candidates to just two, and then the party members will select the ultimate winner.

The virtual poll will close on October 31st, and the outcome will be revealed on November 2nd, just before the US presidential election on November 5th.

Ms Badenoch and the other five candidates for the Conservative Party leadership will not have to contend with competition from Ms Braverman, who was anticipated to join the race.

In an article for the Telegraph, she expressed that it would be futile for her to run for party leadership since the majority of MPs do not support her.