A Nigerian former British Minister for Equalities, Ms. Kemi Badenoch, joined the race to become U. K’s next Prime Minister when Boris Johnson officially steps down in September.
Ms. Badenoch, who was born Olukemi Olufunto to Nigerian parents in Wimbledon, London, was among the 60 members of the United Kingdom parliament and aides who resigned this past week following a scandal involving Boris Johnson’s appointment of a colleague facing sexual assault allegations to a prominent role.
Badenoch’s bid to be the next British prime minister and head of the Conservative Party has attracted a lot of public endorsements from colleagues and a few British lawmakers such as Neil O’Brien, the MP for Harborough, Michael Gove, the MP for Surrey Heath, and Gareth Bacon, the MP for Orpington.
The 42-year-old while announcing her bid for the UK’s high position in an article published in The Times Newspaper, has said she was putting herself forward and out there because she was “exhausted by platitudes and empty rhetoric.”
She further added: “I’m putting myself forward in this leadership election because I want to tell the truth. It’s the truth that will set us free. Without a change in the Conservative Party, Britain and the western world will continue to drift and rivals will outpace us economically and outmaneuver us internationally.”
Badenoch had in the past, served as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Education.
She was additionally a former Vice-Chair of the Conservative Party and ex-member of the Justice Select Committee. Before she was elected a Member of Parliament, she was a Conservative member of the London Assembly, acting as the GLA Conservative’s spokesperson for the economy.
