Tory leadership live: Badenoch wins as poll shows party membership at lowest ever

Kemi Badenoch became the first Black woman to lead a major European political party as she was named Tory leader on Saturday.

Her victory over Robert Jenrick also made her the first Black leader of a major UK political party, following Rishi Sunak’s milestone as the first Asian leader of one of the main parties.

She becomes the fourth female Tory leader, following in the footsteps of her political heroine Margaret Thatcher, as well as the more recent leaders Theresa May and Liz Truss.

Ms Badenoch will hope to last longer as Tory leader than either Baroness May or Ms Truss, who spent three years and 49 days respectively in charge of their party, compared to Mrs Thatcher’s 15 years in the role.

While 1922 Committee chairman Bob Blackman hailed her election as “another glass ceiling shattered”, Ms Badenoch herself made no mention of her race or gender in her victory speech, instead focusing on her task of charting a path back to power for her party.

While the Conservatives have had four female leaders, including three of their last five, the Labour Party has so far had no permanent female leaders.

Asked when Labour would have a female leader, party chair Ellie Reeves said: “We may not have had a female leader of the Labour Party, but on Wednesday we smashed an 800-year-old glass ceiling with the first-ever female Chancellor of the Exchequer to deliver a budget.”

The party also elected the first Black leader of a European nation in Vaughan Gething, who served as First Minister of Wales for a scandal-hit four months.

While Ms Badenoch is the first Black woman to lead a major European party, the first Black leader of such a party was Harlem Desir, who served as leader of the French Socialist Party between 2012 and 2014.

Kemi Badenoch has repeated her calls for the Conservatives to “renew” in a post on social media following her election as leader of the party.

In a post on X this afternoon, she wrote: “It is an honour and a privilege to have been elected to lead our great Conservative Party. A party that I love, that has given me so much.

“I’d also like to pay tribute to Robert Jenrick who fought a great campaign. I have no doubt he will have a key role to play in our party for many years to come.

“Thank you to all the members who have put their faith in me.

“It is time to get down to business.

“It is time to renew.”

Political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports:

• Party unity: Ms Badenoch becomes the Tory party’s fourth leader since the summer of 2022. Tory MPs have had public disagreements and squabbles in recent years over topics from immigration to integrity. Conservative peer and elections commentator, Lord Robert Hayward, said bringing the party back together is the next leader’s number one task.

• Immigration: The issue of immigration and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is one that could bring party unity back to centre stage and has been a much-discussed topic during the campaign. Adam Drummond, the head of political and social research at pollster Opinium, said of the new leader, “it’s hard to see them not talking about immigration a lot”. Ms Badenoch has said that focusing on the ECHR risks shutting “the conversation that we need to have with the entire country” on immigration, and has not gone as far as to say she would quit the agreement completely, writing in The Daily Telegraph in September that “if necessary” the UK should leave “international frameworks like the ECHR”.

• The economy: Focusing on the economy could provide a “viable” path back to power for the Conservatives, Mr Drummond suggested. Responding to Rachel Reeves’ first Budget on Wednesday, Ms Badenoch told LBC that “this is not a growth Budget”.

• Winning back votes lost at the general election: The Conservatives secured 121 seats at the general election in July, losing constituencies to Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK in different parts of the country. Labour won almost 300 more seats than the Tories with 33 per cent of the vote, compared to the Conservatives’ 23 per cent. As well as reuniting the party in Parliament, Lord Hayward said that under the new leader, the party has to “get a message across to the public at large” about their position as Labour’s main opposition.

Never frightened to ruffle feathers, new Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch’s willingness to say what others may regard as unsayable has made her the darling of the Tory grassroots.

Her forthright views on issues from gender identity to institutional racism have thrilled supporters on the right while outraging critics on the left in equal measure.

In the course of a turbulent ministerial career Ms Badenoch clashed with civil servants over her insistence public buildings should have separate men’s and women’s toilet facilities and faced accusations of bullying her own officials.

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Ellie Reeves said she is “worried” about the policies that Kemi Badenoch would advocate as leader of the opposition.

The Labour Party chairwoman told broadcasters: “Kemi was part of the chaos of the last 14 years, serving in various roles.

“And when you think about her leadership campaign, she made some pretty negative comments about autistic children, she said that maternity pay was excessive and the national minimum wage was harmful.

“I’m quite worried about what that means.

“Is their policy going to be to get rid of maternity pay? Would they scrap the minimum wage?

“These are all the things that need to be answered.”

Robert Jenrick has congratulated Kemi Badenoch and called for the Conservative Party to “unite behind” her.

Following his defeat in the Tory leadership election, he posted on X: “Congratulations to Kemi Badenoch. Thank you to everyone who supported my vision for a Conservative Party rooted in the common ground of British politics.

“It’s now time for the Conservatives to unite behind Kemi and take the fight to this disastrous Labour government.”

Here is her first speech as party leader in full, delivered immediately after the result:

Conservative MP Chris Philp said he is “delighted” that Kemi Badenoch has won the Conservative leadership race and “now the whole party will unite behind her”.

The former minister told the PA news agency that it is the party’s job to “take the fight to Labour” who have just “delivered a terrible Budget”.

He added: “We’re going to unite behind Kemi, we’re going to take the fight to Labour and develop a programme for government over the next few years that we can present to the British people at the next general election.”

On divisions among Conservatives in recent years, he said he thinks the party “recognises those challenges that we’ve had in the past and we’ve learned from that”.

He added: “Everybody in Parliament, the party more widely, no matter who they supported during this campaign will now get behind Kemi because it’s in the national interest that we hold this Labour Government to account for the terrible things they’re doing and present a credible alternative government at the next election.

“So I’m absolutely certain we’re going to have unity going forward.”