Kemi Badenoch won the internal elections and will be the next leader of the UK Conservative Party and successor to Rishi Sunak. The MP, 44, punched Robert Jenrick, in a dispute that lasted several weeks, according to Sky News.

The final result shows Badenoch got 53,806 votes, while Jenrick got 41,388.

Rishi Sunak resigned as leader of the Conservative Party on July 5, following the election results and the party’s heavy defeat. At the time he revealed that he would remain in office until a successor was found and argued that the party should be able to “rebuild” itself and establish itself as an effective opposition force.

The departure of the former prime minister from the party leadership sparked an internal struggle that began with an initial list of six candidates, in which the former foreign minister, James Cleverly, was considered the favorite. After a vote carried out by the parliamentary group, the two finalists, Badenoch and Jenrick, were chosen, with the one considered the favorite for the position being eliminated.

Kemi Badenoch came to the House of Commons in 2017 and held various positions in the British government in the last years of the Conservative government, highlighting the fact that she was Minister for International Trade during the short government of Liz Truss, a position she held when Rishi Sunak replaced the former prime minister. Later, she was also Secretary of State for Women and Equality and Minister for Trade and Business.

Kemi Badenoch had already been a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party, when Rishi Sunak ended up becoming leader of the Conservative Party. conservativesThe new leader was eliminated in the fourth round of the internal elections.

Two-man fight between the right wing of the conservatives

Both Badenoch and Jenrick are considered representatives of the most right wing of the conservatives (conservatives), criticism of multiculturalism, speech I woke upsupporter of reducing immigration and taxes.

Born in the United Kingdom, the daughter of parents of Nigerian origin and raised in the African country, Kemi Badenoch defends a return to conservative values, accusing the party of having become more “liberal” on social issues such as gender and of having “governed to the left”.

“I have seen the system from the inside and it is broken,” he proclaimed at the Conservative Congress in early October, proposing to “reconfigure, relaunch and reprogram” the British State.

Some of his positions caused controversy, such as when at the end of September he declared that maternity leave payments were “excessive” or when he told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper that “not all cultures are equal.”

This tendency to make impulsive comments is considered a weakness by critics, while admirers praise his argumentative ability and stimulating critical thinking.

Before entering politics, this engineer by training worked in the banking and IT sectors.