Who is Kemi Badenoch?published at 10:04 BST 2 October
Image source, PA Media
Kemi Badenoch, who has led the Conservative Party since November 2024, is known for dividing opinion, even within her own party.
Born in Wimbledon in 1980, Olukemi Adegoke was one of three children of Nigerian parents. Her father worked as a GP and her mother was a physiology professor.
She grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, and in the US where her mother lectures. She returned to the UK in 2016 and studied for her A-levels at a college in south London, before completing a degree in computer engineering at Sussex University.
At the age of 25, Badenoch joined the Conservatives. Five years later she went on to make unsuccessful bids for Parliament, and then the London Assembly in 2012. In 2015, she took a vacant Assembly seat.
She backed Brexit in the 2016 referendum before achieving her ambition of becoming an MP a year later, in the safe Conservative seat of Saffron Walden in Essex.
Eight years later, Badenoch secured her position as leader of the Conservative Party, beating Robert Jenrick to replace Rishi Sunak.
As the first black woman to lead a major UK political party she has made history, saying she would bring in big changes to the party.
Her time in Parliament has since been characterised by her straightforwardness and willingness to engage in controversial issues.
