Kemi Badenoch pledges Tory renewal as she enters leadership race

Kemi Badenoch has pledged to "revitalize" the Conservative Party as she throws her hat into the ring to become the sixth candidate vying for the role of the next Tory leader.

The opposition's housing spokesperson stated that she plans to go back to the core beliefs of her party, prioritizing national independence and restoring faith in the capitalist system.

The 44-year-old is aiming to become the next Prime Minister, following in the footsteps of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. He consistently ranks highest in polls among members of the Conservative Party.

She is among a group of people including Dame Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat, and James Cleverly who are competing to take over from Mr. Sunak. Suella Braverman, the former Home Secretary, has announced that she will not be entering the race.

Ms. Badenoch mentioned that the Conservative Party should concentrate on excelling in certain areas rather than performing poorly in every aspect in order to bounce back from their historically bad election outcome, resulting in only 121 MPs.

In an article for The Times newspaper, she stated: "I am starting my campaign with a clear aim of revitalizing our party for 2030 - the initial year we could potentially be in power again and the beginning of a new decade."

According to Ms. Badenoch, under her leadership, the Conservative party will once again embrace honesty and go back to its original principles.

In her blog post, Ms Badenoch argued in favor of withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), a significant point of contention within the Conservative party.

Some people who support traditional values believe that withdrawing from the convention is crucial for managing immigration and improving national security. On the other hand, some individuals are concerned that doing so may harm the reputation of the UK on the global stage and weaken legal safeguards.

Ms. Badenoch stated that we cannot regulate immigration effectively unless we reaffirm our faith in the nation state and its primary responsibility to prioritize the well-being of its own people.

Our community services will not be able to bounce back completely from the pandemic unless we acknowledge that the government should excel in certain areas instead of performing poorly in everything.

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

She stated that the prosperity of our country is founded on our long-standing talent for harnessing the creativity and hard work of our citizens, and the readiness of numerous individuals to exchange uncertainty for success.

"It has a negative connotation, but we need to revive capitalism as part of our overall renewal."

An enthusiastic Brexit advocate, Ms. Badenoch won her first MP election in 2017. In her inaugural speech in parliament, she praised the Brexit decision as a strong show of support for the United Kingdom.

She got her first important job in Boris Johnson's government, working with Mr. Sunak in the Treasury while he was the chancellor.

Ms Badenoch became popular among the more conservative members of her party while serving as the Minister for Women and Equalities in 2021 because of her views on transgender rights.

She once competed for the position of Conservative leader after Boris Johnson stepped down, and ultimately placed fourth even though she began with not much recognition.

Ms Badenoch now consistently receives higher approval ratings from party members compared to her competitors, as shown by surveys on Conservative Home, a website widely used by activists.

Prior to officially declaring her candidacy, Ms. Badenoch accused her fellow Conservatives of attempting to undermine her by spreading false and harmful information to the media. She considered these actions to be deceitful and malicious.

Ms Badenoch recently took to social media to express her frustration over the actions of a group supporting a different leadership bid. She claimed they had sent a negative document to journalists and were spreading false information about her supposedly starting a secret campaign website.

Meanwhile, an article was published in The Spectator, an outside publication, alleging that a persona named "Kemi" had left a trail of outspoken and occasionally impolite remarks on a Nigerian website back in the mid-2000s.

The blog post mentioned that the comments made had minimal impact on her reputation for being straightforward and were not likely to harm her chances in the race for leadership.

Tory MPs who want to be the next leader of the Conservative party need support from at least 10 MPs and have to raise £200,000 by 2:30pm BST on Monday in order to be eligible for the first round of voting.

Mr. Sunak will continue to lead the Conservative party until a new leader is named.

Tory MPs will begin the process of selecting a replacement by narrowing down the candidates who have enough support to four by the end of September, during the party's annual conference in Birmingham.

Members of Parliament will have multiple votes to narrow down the candidates to two finalists. Party members will then select the overall winner.

The online voting will close on October 31st, and the outcome will be revealed on November 2nd, just three days prior to the US presidential election.

Ms Badenoch and the five other candidates for the Tory leadership won't have to compete against Ms Braverman, who was expected to join the race.

According to an article in the Telegraph, she mentioned that there was no reason for her to run for the party leadership since the majority of MPs did not agree with her.

The temporary editor of Conservative Home, Henry Hill, said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Ms Braverman had made a serious mistake in understanding the feelings of the party during and after the general election.

She was firmly situated on the right side of the political spectrum. She was eager to negotiate a quick agreement with Reform UK, even though it wasn't a widely supported idea.

"And she took actions such as criticizing the government right before the voting ended, while Conservative party members were still working to get Conservative Members of Parliament elected."