Blue Ambition

During the Conservative Party leadership contest in the summer of 2022, Kemi Badenoch made an immediate impression on the public as a politician with robust views and a strong personality. Although only a junior minister at the time, she was marked out as a rising star and, having exited the race after the fourth ballot, even as a potential future leader. From September 2022, she served in the Cabinets of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, combining her post as the Secretary of State for Business and Trade with that of the Minister for Women and Equalities.

Badenoch's centre-right instincts and admiration for Margaret Thatcher have helped to guarantee that her popularity among the grassroots of her party remains high, yet her background is unusual by Westminster's standards. Having been born in London and raised in Nigeria, she describes herself as 'to all intents and purposes a first-generation immigrant'. She returned to Britain aged sixteen to sit her A-levels before studying computer systems engineering at the University of Sussex. She then worked in the banking sector before becoming a Member of the London Assembly in 2015 and, in 2017, entering the House of Commons as the MP for Saffron Walden.

So what makes Badenoch tick? How has she achieved Cabinet rank so quickly? And what would be the implications for the direction of the Conservative Party if she did become its leader?

In this meticulously researched biography, Michael Ashcroft charts Badenoch's fascinating course from relative obscurity to being hailed in some quarters as the saviour of conservatism in the UK.