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British Conservatives have made their choice
After 14 years in power, Britain's Conservative Party, which has been in opposition since July last year, has finally found a new leader. Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been replaced by 44-year-old Kemi Badenoch, the first black woman to lead the Tories. The key challenge for the new leader of Britain's far-right Conservative Party will be the difficult process of reviving one of Britain's two traditional political forces. The Conservatives hope to rebuild their ranks to win back ground from Labour and the far right in the next election.
In the election for the new Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch was by no means the obvious candidate. Initially, the race was led by a more moderate candidate, former Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. Later, bookmakers began to bet on the most radical candidate, Robert Jenrick, to win. Robert Jenrick has built his campaign on anti-immigration rhetoric and called for Britain to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. Deport terrorists and “dangerous foreign criminals such as rapists, murderers and paedophiles.”
Initially backed by just 42 of the 121 Conservative MPs who retained their seats in the 650-member House of Commons, Mr Badenoch enjoyed varying degrees of success on her way to her current victory. Three months of campaigning have seen her chances of replacing former chancellor Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader suddenly rise or fall.
In late September, Kemi Badenoch appeared to abandon her candidacy, saying the country's maternity benefits were "excessive".
However, in the Tory leadership vote (the first stage of the election), James Cleverly came third, surprisingly, between the two finalists from last weekend, Kem Badenoch and the party's core members. Robert Jenrick preferred the former.
Mr Baidenoch joined the Conservative Party in 2005 and has since held a variety of positions, including deputy party chairman, minister for local government, faith and communities, equalities officer, chancellor of the exchequer, under-secretary of state for education and minister for business and trade.
But the most important fact, which was first noted by all the British newspapers at the moment of her victory, was that Badenoch, who was born in England and lived in Nigeria until the age of 16, was the first black woman to win the country's two main political parties.
But about a year ago, the newly appointed Conservative leader called Britain "the best country in the world for black people".
It is worth noting that since Prime Minister David Cameron came to power, the Tories have made a conscious effort to attract minority figures to leadership positions. One need only think of James Cleverly, whose mother was an immigrant from Sierra Leone, former Home Secretary Priti Patel and Suella Braverman, who was born to or is succeeding Indian immigrants from Uganda. Her family is from Kenya and Mauritius, not to mention former Prime Minister and, more recently, former Tory leader Rishi Sunak. But despite this backdrop, the rise of a second successive ethnic minority leader in the party has been a source of genuine pride for the Conservative Party, undermining the conventional wisdom that all Britons of colour are by definition left-wing, not left-wing. . right.
Going forward, Kemi Badenoch’s main challenge will be to revive the party that suffered a crushing defeat last July and effectively challenge the already unpopular Labour government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who recently unveiled the country’s biggest tax increase in 30 years. But the newly elected leader has chosen to begin this difficult process not by criticising her ideological opponents, but by acknowledging her party’s failures. “Our party is crucial to the success of our country. But if we are to be heard, we must be honest. Be honest and admit that we have made mistakes and fallen short of standards. “It’s time to tell the truth,” she said in her speech after being elected to the party’s top job.
The new Conservative leader will have five years to right his wrongs before the next general election. But those five years are unlikely to be easy for Kemi Badenoch. The job of leader of the opposition in Britain is considered one of the toughest jobs in British politics.