A Conservative leader who cites Thatcher as inspiration

Kemi Badenoch just refuses to accept the words 'you can't'

- JANE PRESTON

Kemi Badenoch is the woman who always wanted to wear Margaret Thatcher’s “trousers”. As a child growing up in Nigeria’s patriarchal society, she saw Thatcher as her heroine; a self-made woman of power who was outspoken and uncompromising in her conviction.

“Whenever I was told I couldn’t do something because I was a girl, I would just say two words: Margaret Thatcher. And there was nothing they could say in response to that,” says Badenoch. “She was inspirational.” Who could have imagined that the Nigerian schoolgirl would not only go on to sit at the cabinet table from which Thatcher ran Britain for over 11 years but would, today, have succeeded in her battle to become the next leader of the Conservative and Unionist party.

The Tory party has been looking for a new Margaret Thatcher since it got rid of the last one. The hopes that Theresa May and Liz Truss would fit the bill came to nothing, but in Badenoch, they see a woman who, like Thatcher, is a leader who is willing to say what other politicians won’t.

Badenoch is especially loved by the Tory grassroots for being an outspoken and trenchant critic of “wokery, critical race theory and gender identity ideology”. Those who support her politically want a culture war warrior. They need someone who is not going to compromise.

And Badenoch doesn't compromise with anyone about anything. It is a trait that has made her unpopular with many of her peers. She's earned a reputation for a combative and abrasive style of politics, with claims she is rude, arrogant and aggressive. “Her instincts are to go straight for the jugular,” says a Westminster insider. “And she is completely unapologetic for doing so.”

So what has made Badenoch the battling Boudica of the Conservative Party? In many ways her formative years in Nigeria moulded her into the woman and politician she is today.