BUSINESS DAY
Kemi Badenoch has reportedly hit back at claims that she is being lined up to replace Rishi Sunak saying Tory plotters “need to stop messing around”.
The Guardian reported on Monday that the business secretary thought it was wrong to call time on the prime minister’s tenure, despite his polling figures.
Ms Badenoch also told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that Mr Sunak needed the support of the party as it geared up for an election.
She said: “They need to stop messing around and get behind the leader.
“The fact of the matter is most people in the country are not interested in all of this Westminster tittle-tattle. Quite frankly, the people who keep putting my name in there are not my friends. They don’t care about me. They don’t care about my family or what this would entail. They are just stirring.”
Ms Badenoch is a favourite of the party’s right wing and has been touted as a possible future leader.
She stood in the 2022 party election and had previously been given a furious scolding by the Speaker of the House of Commons who disapproved of her “patronising” approach in response to questions over the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.
How did Kemi Badenoch become business and trade secretary?
Olukemi Badenoch, to give her full name, has had a long career within the Conservative party and has been tipped consistently for big things.
Becoming the Conservative MP for Saffron Walden in 2017, she served as international trade secretary before taking up her current role.
In 2022, she put herself forward to replace former prime minister Boris Johnson as a “fresh face” for the Conservative party. Ms Badenoch showed her right-wing credentials by standing on an anti-woke and small government platform.
“There are always tough choices in life and in politics; no free lunches, no tax cuts without limits on government spending, no stronger defence without a slimmer state,” she said at the time.
Her bid was backed by more than a dozen Tory colleagues, including Michael Gove. However, she ultimately lost out to Liz Truss in the Tory party leadership campaign, finishing fourth.
Ms Badenoch, 44, had been international trade secretary since September and also held the position of minister of women and equalities.
Her promotion was part of a wider departmental shake-up, with the prime minister splitting the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy into three new departments.
The move was made as part of a restructuring that began with the departure of Nadhim Zahawi as party chairman.
What is her political background?
Born in Wimbledon, Ms Badenoch lived in the US and Nigeria as a child before returning to the UK aged 16.
She has talked about working in McDonald’s while studying for her A-levels in Morden.
After graduating from the University of Sussex with a master’s degree in computer systems engineering, she worked for companies including…
