Kemi Badenoch wins Tory leadership contest

Kemi Badenoch has been named the new Tory leader after defeating rival Robert Jenrick on Saturday.

Badenoch, who will become the Conservative Party’s first black leader, secured 53,806 votes to Jenrick’s 41,388 to succeed Rishi Sunak, the party’s leader.

A typically outspoken Badenoch said in her acceptance speech that the party needed to be “honest” about its recent problems. “To be heard, we have to be honest,” she said. “Honest about the fact that we have made mistakes. Honest about the fact that we have let down the standards. The time has come to tell the truth. It is time to innovate.”

In recent months, Badenoch has declared himself a strong favorite among the party’s grassroots members, whose votes decided the battle.

Her outspoken views on issues from gender identity to institutional racism have delighted the right of the party and angered critics on the left, who have accused her of deliberately stoking so-called culture wars.

Over the course of a turbulent ministerial career, Badenoch clashed with critics over her insistence that public buildings should have separate toilet facilities for men and women, faced accusations of bullying her own civil servants and claimed that up to 10% of civil servants were so bad at their jobs that they “should be in jail”.

Yahoo UK takes a closer look at some of her most controversial comments.

‘I became working class when I started working at McDonald’s’

What happened: Badenoch raised a few eyebrows when she claimed she grew up in a middle-class family but “became working class” after getting a job at McDonald’s at the age of 16.

She said the job was the “first time I ever interacted well with people who didn’t come from the kind of background I came from”.

“I just understand how many people there were single parents, and they were working there to make ends meet,” she added.

Her comments attracted widespread ridicule online, with Irvine Welsh, the author of Trainspotting, saying: “I was a council boy but I became upper class when I started shoplifting at Harrods. It just takes entrepreneurship.”

What she said: Although Badenoch did not respond directly to the criticism, she later told the podcast: “I’ve never made any blunders or apologized for anything I said, (saying) ‘oh that’s not what I meant’. I never need clarification because I think carefully about what I say.”

Read more: Kemi Badenoch claims she ‘became working class’ after getting a job at McDonald’s as a teenager (Sky News – September 18, 2024)

Badenoch vs. David Tennant

What happened: Doctor Who actor David Tenant became embroiled in a row with Badenoch over trans rights after appearing at the British LGBT Awards, where he gave the Tory hope over her views on gender.

While accepting his Celebrity Ally award, he said: “If I’m honest, I’m a little depressed by the fact that the recognition that everyone has the right to be who they want to be, and live their lives however they want to live It should, as long as they don’t hurt anyone else, deserve a special award or special mention, because it’s common sense, right?”

He added: “We shouldn’t live in a world where that’s worth noticing. But until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch no longer exists, I wish her no harm, I just want her to shut up. – even though we live in this world, I am honored to receive this.”

What she said: “I will not be silent. I will not be silenced by men who prioritize the applause of Stonewall over the safety of women and girls. A rich, left-wing, white male celebrity who is so blinded by ideology that he doesn’t see the optics of killing the only black woman in government by publicly calling for the end of my existence.”

Read more: David Tennant, Kemi Badenoch and the Prime Minister: the LGBTQ rights feud (Evening Standard – June 26, 2024)

Maternity benefit ‘excessive’

What happened: Badenoch was criticized by Tory rivals after she told Times Radio she believed maternity pay was “excessive” and people should exercise “more personal responsibility”.

Describing statutory maternity pay as “a function of tax”, she told the broadcaster in September: “Tax comes from people who work, we take from one group of people and give it to another group. This, in my opinion, is excessive.”

Arguing that businesses are closing because “the burden of regulation is too high,” she added: “We need to give businesses, especially small businesses, the ability to make more decisions for themselves.

Her comments were quickly criticized by fellow Conservative leadership candidates, with Robert Jenrick saying he is “firmly on the side of parents”, and Tom Tugendhat saying he wanted to see “strong maternity and paternity pay”.

Joeli Brearley, founder of campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed, said it is “absolute nonsense” to suggest businesses are closing for statutory maternity benefits because they can recoup costs from HMRC, adding that the payment is “absolutely essential”.

What she said: Badenoch later backtracked on her comments, posting on Watch the clip for the truth.”

Read more: Tory rivals are turning on Badenoch over ‘outrageous’ comments on maternity benefits (De Telegraaf – September 29, 2024)

‘Not all cultures are equally valid’

What happened: In an interview on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Badenoch said that “not all cultures are equally valid” when it comes to deciding who can enter the UK.

She gave the example of societies that “believe in child marriage” or that “women do not have equal rights.”

Badenoch was asked about an article she wrote for the Sunday Telegraph, in which she wrote: “I am struck, for example, by the number of recent immigrants to Britain who hate Israel. There is no place for that sentiment here.”

She replied: “I didn’t say that only recent immigrants hate Israel. I said I’m struck by how many recent immigrants hate Israel. It is quite clear that there are many people who have recently come to this country and have expressed their opinions. from where they used to be, who have no place here.”

What she said: Kuenssberg pressed Badenoch on what immigrants she was “specifically” talking about, to which the Tory candidate responded: “I know what you’re trying to do, Laura.

“You want me to say Muslims when they’re not all Muslims, so I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to play this game.

“I should be able to say that I made an observation without you trying to portray it as me attacking a particular group.”

Asked again what evidence she based her claim on, she said: “I told you – things people write, people I’ve met. I talked about people tearing up posters, we saw who did it… We need to be able to have these conversations without being afraid, without running away.”

‘Mental health has become something that society, schools and employers have to work around’

What happened: Badenoch was accused of ‘stigmatising’ people with autism after suggesting there were certain benefits to having a diagnosis.

In the foreword to a report entitled “Conservatism in Crisis”, Badenoch suggested that having an autism diagnosis “provides economic benefits and protection”, as well as “better treatment or equipment at school” and “even transportation to and from home”.

“While psychological and mental health were once seen as something people should work on as individuals, mental health has become something society, schools and employers must work around,” she wrote.

In response to Badenoch’s comments, the Autism Center of Excellence in Cambridge said: “We believe autistic people and parents will agree that the government has failed to provide good education, employment and the right care. Anyone with an interest in governing our country would wonder why this is so.”

What she said: A spokesperson for Badenoch said it would be “wrong to infer any bias” from the report, adding that she wrote the foreword and that the authors “discuss the increasing impact of mental health and its effect on productivity view” as a critical issue for society.

Read more: Kemi Badenoch faces backlash for ‘stigmatising’ autism (The Independent – October 14, 2024)