Kemi Badenoch

Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch (née Adegoke; born January 1980)[3][4][5] is a British Conservative politician and has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Saffron Walden since the 2017 general election. Badenoch was born in Wimbledon, London to parents of Nigerian origin. Her childhood was spent in Lagos, Nigeria and the United States. She moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 16. After studying Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex, she worked as a software engineer at Logica. Badenoch went on to work at RBS as a systems analyst before working as an associate director at Coutts and later as a director at The Spectator magazine.

Kemi Badenoch

MP
Badenoch in 2017
Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury
Assumed office
13 February 2020
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded bySimon Clarke
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities
Assumed office
14 February 2020
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded byThe Baroness Williams of Trafford
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families
In office
27 July 2019 – 13 February 2020
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded byNadhim Zahawi
Succeeded byVicky Ford
Member of Parliament
for Saffron Walden
Assumed office
8 June 2017
Preceded bySir Alan Haselhurst
Majority27,594 (43.8%)
Member of the London Assembly
as the 4th Additional Member[1]
In office
5 May 2016 – 8 June 2017
Preceded byGareth Bacon
Succeeded bySusan Hall
Member of the London Assembly
as the 3rd Additional Member[2]
In office
16 September 2015 – 5 May 2016
Preceded byVictoria Borwick
Succeeded byShaun Bailey
Personal details
Born
Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke

January 1980 (age 40)
Wimbledon, London, England
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)
Hamish Badenoch
(
m. 2012)
Children3
Alma materUniversity of Sussex
Birkbeck, University of London
WebsiteOfficial website

In 2012, Badenoch unsuccessfully contested a seat at the London Assembly. Three years later, Badenoch was selected as a London Assembly member after Suella Braverman and Victoria Borwick declined their seats after being elected as MPs at the 2015 general election. She supported Brexit in the 2016 EU membership referendum. Badenoch was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Saffron Walden on 8 June 2017 following the retirement of former deputy speaker Alan Haselhurst, she became the first woman to represent that constituency.

Early life

Badenoch was born in January 1980 in Wimbledon, London to Femi and Feyi Adegoke.[6][7] Her father is a GP and her mother is a professor of physiology.[8] Adegoke's childhood included time living in the United States (where her mother lectured) and Lagos, Nigeria.[9] She returned to the UK at the age of 16 and obtained A Levels from the Phoenix College in Morden, London while working at a branch of the fast food company McDonald's.[10][11]

Adegoke studied Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex.[12][13] She initially worked within the IT sector first as a software engineer at Logica (later CGI Group). While working there she studied part-time at Birkbeck, University of London and obtained a Law degree in 2009.[8]

Adegoke then worked as a systems analyst at RBS,[14] before pursuing a career in consultancy and financial services, working as an associate director of private bank and wealth manager Coutts and later a director at the conservative magazine The Spectator.[13]

Political career

Adegoke joined the Conservative Party in 2005 at the age of 25.[15][16] In 2010 she contested the Dulwich and West Norwood constituency against Labour's Tessa Jowell and came third behind Jowell, and Jonathan Mitchell (the Liberal Democrat candidate).[17]

Two years later, Adegoke stood for the Conservatives in the London Assembly election where she was placed fifth on the London-wide list.[18] The election saw the Conservatives win only three seats from the London-wide list, so Adegoke was not elected.[19] Three years later, in the 2015 general election, Victoria Borwick was elected to the House of Commons[20] and subsequently resigned her seat on the London Assembly. The fourth placed candidate on the list, Suella Fernandes, had also been elected to the House of Commons[21] and declined to fill the vacancy. Badenoch (following her marriage in 2012) was therefore declared to be the new Assembly Member.[2] She went on to retain her seat in the Assembly in the 2016 election.[1] Badenoch supports a repeal of the ban on fox hunting.[22]

Badenoch was elected as MP for the Saffron Walden constituency in the 2017 general election with 37,629 votes and a majority of a 24,966 (41.0%).[9][23] She had also made the shortlist to be the Conservative Party candidate in the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency.[24] In her maiden speech on the 19 July, she described the vote for Brexit as "the greatest ever vote of confidence in the project of the United Kingdom" and cited her personal heroes as the Conservative politicians Winston Churchill, Airey Neave, and Margaret Thatcher.[7] In the same month, Badenoch was selected to join the 1922 Executive Committee.[25] In September, she was appointed to the parliamentary Justice Select Committee.[26] The following month, Badenoch was listed at Number 96 on Conservative political commentator Iain Dale's "100 most influential on the Right 2017".[27]

She was appointed as the Conservative Party's Vice Chair for Candidates in January 2018.[28] In April 2018, The Mail on Sunday obtained a video of an interview that Badenoch did with Core Politics, where she confessed to hacking into the website of a Labour MP in 2008.[29][30] The MP in question was Harriet Harman, who was then Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. Harman accepted Badenoch's apology, but the matter was reported to Action Fraud, the UK's cyber crime reporting centre.[31][32]

In July 2019, Badenoch was appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.[33][34]

Badenoch supported Brexit in the 2016 UK EU membership referendum.[9] She voted for then Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement in early 2019. In the indicative votes on 27 March, she voted against a referendum on a withdrawal agreement and against a customs union with the EU.[35] In October, Badenoch voted for Johnson's withdrawal agreement.[36] In the December general election, she was re-elected with an increased majority of 27,594 (43.8%) votes.[37][38]

In February 2020, Badenoch was appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Equalities) in the Department for International Trade.[39] She has been a member of the Public Accounts Committee since March 2020.[40]

Personal life

Kemi is married to Hamish Badenoch and they have two daughters and one son.[41][42] Hamish works for Deutsche Bank[9][38] and was a Conservative councillor until May 2018 on the Merton London Borough Council.[43] Badenoch was a board member of the Charlton Triangle Homes housing association until 2016, and was also previously a school governor at St Thomas the Apostle College in Southwark, and the Jubilee Primary School (both in London).[14][44]

gollark: I shouldn't *have* to do that, some stuff is probably enabled anyway, and Linux is just nicer.
gollark: Have you tried actually benchmarking them before you delete them?
gollark: RAID? What drives are you RAIDing together?
gollark: No, I mean, deleting them. With a hammer.
gollark: Have you considered deleting your HDDs?

References
  1. "Results 2016". London Elects. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  2. "New Assembly Member appointed". London Assembly. 16 September 2015. Archived from the original on 4 November 2016.
  3. "Meet the Other Nigerians Elected Into the UK Parliament". BellaNaija. Lagos. 9 June 2017. Archived from the original on 17 September 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  4. "Exclusive: Kemi Badenoch selected in Saffron Walden". Conservative Home. 2 May 2017. Archived from the original on 30 June 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  5. "Kemi Adegoke". Companies House. Archived from the original on 27 August 2017. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  6. "Badenoch, Kemi (Who's Who, online edition)". A & C Black. 1 December 2016. Archived from the original on 27 March 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  7. "Kemi Badenoch: from African immigrant to Essex MP, I've lived the 'British dream'". The Spectator. 20 July 2017. Archived from the original on 20 July 2017.
  8. "A View from the Top: Kemi Badenoch, the 'Nigerian oil boom baby' and Tory MP who sees Brexit as a golden opportunity". The Independent. 31 August 2017. Archived from the original on 9 September 2017. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
  9. Urwin, Rosamund (14 June 2017). "Kemi Badenoch: I'm black but I'm also a woman, a mum and an MP". London Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 20 August 2017.
  10. "The culture of low expectations: Kemi Adegoke at TEDxEuston". TEDxEuston. 25 February 2011. Archived from the original on 10 June 2017.
  11. "Kemi Badenoch" (PDF). Birkbeck College. p. 1. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  12. Riley-Smith, Ben (6 May 2017). "'Theresa factor' credited with surge in women candidates as party looks set to make history by securing more women MPs than ever before". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 9 April 2018.
  13. Lodge, Will (2 May 2017). "Conservative general election candidate to replace Sir Alan Haselhurst in Saffron Walden seat named as Kemi Badenoch". Saffron Walden Reporter. Archived from the original on 12 May 2017.
  14. "Theme: Our destiny in our hands". TEDxEuston. Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  15. Quinn, Ben (10 June 2017). "Westminster's new intake – with some notable firsts". The Observer. Archived from the original on 22 April 2018. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
  16. Gimson, Andrew (21 December 2017). "Interview: Kemi Badenoch – "I'm not really left-leaning on anything...I always lean right instinctively"". Conservative Home. Archived from the original on 22 April 2018. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
  17. "Election 2010 - Constituency — Dulwich & West Norwood". BBC News. Archived from the original on 23 August 2017.
  18. "Every candidate in the London Assembly and London mayoral elections: get the data". The Guardian. 1 May 2012. Archived from the original on 13 October 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
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  20. "Kensington". UK Polling Report. Archived from the original on 13 October 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  21. "Fareham". BBC News. 7 May 2015. Archived from the original on 30 December 2016.
  22. "Kemi Badenoch". Saffron Walden Conservatives. Archived from the original on 1 August 2017.
  23. "Saffron Walden". BBC News. Archived from the original on 22 June 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  24. Luckhurst, Phoebe (4 May 2017). "Meet London's new generation of Conservative MPs". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017.
  25. Wallace, Mark (18 July 2017). "1922 Executive Committee election results announced. Two new MPs join it – Badenoch and Lamont". Conservative Home. Archived from the original on 8 January 2018.
  26. "Membership — Justice Committee". UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 30 September 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
  27. Dale, Iain (2 October 2017). "Iain Dale's 100 most influential people on the Right 2017. May tops it. Davis is second. And Davidson third". Conservative Home. Archived from the original on 30 October 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  28. Hope, Christopher (8 January 2018). "Novice Tory MP Kemi Badenoch put in charge of selecting Conservative candidates for 2022 general election". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 9 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  29. Levesley, David (8 April 2018). "Kemi Badenoch admits she hacked a Labour MP's website to 'say nice things about the Tories'". i News. Archived from the original on 8 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  30. "Tory rising star apologises after admitting she 'hacked into Labour MP's website'". The Telegraph. 8 April 2018. Archived from the original on 8 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  31. Heffer, Greg (8 April 2018). "Tory vice-chair Kemi Badenoch admits hacking Labour MP's website". Sky News. Archived from the original on 8 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  32. Khomami, Nadia (9 April 2018). "Harriet Harman accepts Tory rising star's hacking apology". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 9 April 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  33. "Kemi Badenoch MP - Biography". Retrieved 27 July 2019 – via Gov.UK.
  34. Whittaker, Freddie (29 July 2019). "Kemi Badenoch replaces Nadhim Zahawi as children's minister". Schools Week. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
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  36. Buchan, Lizzy (22 October 2019). "How your MP voted for Boris Johnson's Brexit deal". The Independent. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
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  39. Maciuca, Andra (14 February 2020). "MPs change roles in Tory government reshuffle". Saffron Walden Reporter.
  40. "Public Accounts Committee membership agreed". UK Parliament. 2 March 2020. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
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  42. @KemiBadenoch (27 September 2019). "My husband and I are delighted to announce the birth of our third child, a baby girl born last week. We are thrilled and grateful for the love and support from family, friends, colleagues and constituents" (Tweet). Retrieved 11 March 2020 – via Twitter.
  43. "Hamish Badenoch". Merton Council. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  44. "Annual Review to Tenants 2016" (PDF). Charlton Triangle Homes. p. 7. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 August 2017. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Sir Alan Haselhurst		 Member of Parliament
for Saffron Walden
2017–present		 Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by
Nadhim Zahawi		 Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families
2019–2020		 Succeeded by
Vicky Ford
Preceded by
The Baroness Williams of Trafford		 Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities
2020–present		 Incumbent
Preceded by
Simon Clarke		 Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury
2020–present

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