KEMI BADENOCH MP SAFRON WALDRON

Olukemi Olufunto "Kemi" Badenoch (née Adegoke, 2 January 1980) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Business and Trade since 2023 and President of the Board of Trade and Minister for Women and Equalities since 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Saffron Walden in Essex since 2017.

In 2012, Badenoch unsuccessfully contested a seat on the London Assembly, but was appointed an Assembly Member after Victoria Borwick resigned upon becoming an MP in 2015. A supporter of Brexit in the 2016 referendum, Badenoch was elected to the House of Commons in 2017. After Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in July 2019, Badenoch was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families. In the February 2020 reshuffle, she was appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities. In September 2021, she was promoted to Minister of State for Equalities and appointed Minister of State for Local Government, Faith and Communities.

Kemi is a former Vice-Chair of the Conservative Party and former member of the Justice Select Committee. Prior to her election as a Member of Parliament, she was a Conservative member of the London Assembly, acting as the GLA Conservative’s spokesperson for the economy.

Kemi is also a patron of several charities in the constituency including Support 4 Sight, The Stroke Club, Mind in West Essex and Uttlesford Community Action Network (formerly the Council of Voluntary Services Uttlesford).

Her other areas of interest include engineering and technology, social mobility and integration.

In July 2022, Badenoch resigned from Government and stood unsuccessfully to replace Johnson in the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election. Following Liz Truss becoming Prime Minister in September 2022, Badenoch was appointed as Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade and was sworn in to the Privy Council; she was reappointed to the Cabinet by Truss's successor, Rishi Sunak, the following month.

In a February 2023 Cabinet reshuffle, Badenoch assumed the position of Secretary of State for Business and Trade following the merging of the Department for International Trade with elements of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Badenoch retained the responsibilities of Equalities Minister.

On the subject of the United Kingdom's colonial history, Badenoch has argued that "there were terrible things that happened during the British Empire, there were other good things that happened, and we need to tell both sides of the story".

We'd like to know what is good about slavery and trading African slaves? Especially with British Kings and Queens not only endorsing illegal trade, but actually granting royal licenses, such as with the South Sea Bubble. With Parliament in approval. How can anyone suggest that ordinary morals were less valid in days gone by? Sure, the values of some in position of power and trust were seriously skewed as to profiting from the misery of other humans. But that should be (and is today) recognised as being wrong, and apologies made. Even it that means abolition of the Monarchy, and reparations. Though without any execution, as was the case with King Charles I in 1649.

Such an attitude may hold sway in the present Tory government, where Liz Truss's solution was to make the prisoners of the UK, the voters, work harder. As in: 'Row harder slaves.' But in a bankrupt Britain, with national debts spiraling out of control, a business as usual approach is demonstrably unsustainable. When will British politicians take on board that we have already exhausted planet earth, to the point where desertification is ruining agricultural land, where islands are sinking and the ice caps are melting. And yet in the UK we continue to build executive housing, in denial of our young shoots, desperately trying to make ends meet, because there is no affordable housing. Mainly down to Conservative slavist policies.

As is routine for newly appointed cabinet ministers, Badenoch was sworn in as a privy counsellor on 13 September 2022 at Buckingham Palace, affording her the honorific prefix "The Right Honourable" for life. [But then, Tony Blair and Boris Johnson, were all Rt Hons. Hence, the title smacks of politicians who lie for a living; the very essence of politics. For, nobody who tells the truth would ever get elected. Except perhaps, the fictional Honest Johnson]

BOJO'S GOVERMENT

In July 2019, Badenoch was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In February 2020, Badenoch was appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Equalities) in the Department for International Trade.

In a Cabinet reshuffle in September 2021, Badenoch was promoted to Minister of State for Equalities and appointed Minister of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. Within days of her appointments, the latter title was renamed "Minister of State for Levelling Up Communities". On 6 July 2022, Badenoch resigned from Government, citing Johnson's handling of the Chris Pincher scandal, in a joint statement with fellow ministers Alex Burghart, Neil O'Brien, Lee Rowley and Julia Lopez.

Following Johnson's resignation, Badenoch launched a bid to succeed him as Conservative Party leader, stating that she wanted to "tell the truth" and that she advocated "strong but limited government". As a candidate, she called the target of net zero carbon emissions "ill-thought through" and said that politicians had become "hooked on the idea of the state fixing the majority of problems". She launched her campaign at an event held on 12 July. At her launch, handwritten signs saying "Men" and "Ladies" were taped to the doors of gender-neutral toilets; however, Pink News and others understood that these signs appeared before Badenoch and her team arrived at the venue.

According to The Sunday Times, Badenoch entered the race as "a relatively unknown minister for local government" but "within a week emerged as the insurgent candidate to become Britain’s next prime minister". She was eliminated in the fourth round of voting, as she received the fewest votes of the remaining candidates.

Following her elimination from the leadership contest, Badenoch did not endorse another candidate.

TRUSSED GOVERNMENT

In September 2022, after Liz Truss became Prime Minister for 44 days, she appointed Badenoch to her Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Trade. Following Truss' resignation the following month, Badenoch endorsed Rishi Sunak in the leadership election, stating that he was "the serious, honest leader we need". [Not many voters would agree with that today]

SUNACK'S GOVERNMENT

On 25 October 2022, Badenoch was retained as Secretary of State for International Trade by Rishi Sunak upon him becoming Prime Minister. She was also granted the additional role of Minister for Women & Equalities.

In a February 2023 Cabinet reshuffle, Badenoch was appointed as the first Secretary of State at the newly-created Department for Business and Trade, with continued responsibility for equalities. The new role was effectively an expansion of her portfolio as International Trade Secretary to include the business and investment responsibilities of the now-defunct Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

In January 2023, Badenoch, as Equalities Minister, appointed Joanne Cash as a Commissioner to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) board. Badenoch said that Cash had "a track record of promoting women's rights and freedom of expression". The Labour Party criticised the appointment as, after being approved for the appointment, Cash had donated money to Badenoch's campaign as a candidate for leadership of the Conservative Party in the summer of 2022 and Badenoch had not declared this. The Guardian said that Badenoch had not broken any rules by making the appointment. The EHRC said it has "robust procedures in place to manage conflicts of interest or perceived conflicts of interest, including requiring any board members to recuse themselves from discussion where there may be conflicts. These procedures will be applied in this case too". A government’s Equality Hub spokesperson said the appointment "was made following a full and open competition, which involved a public application process and interviews with an expert panel".

In late April 2023, Badenoch announced that the government was planning to reduce the number of laws to be repealed to around 800, as opposed to the government's original target of around 4,000 laws. Such reversal was met with dismay by Brexit advocates, including the Bill's original architect Jacob Rees-Mogg. Despite this controversy, New Statesman named her as the seventh most powerful British right-wing figure in 2023, describing her as the "darling" of many party members in spite of "cooling enthusiasm".

RACE RELATIONS DEBATE 

During a House of Commons debate in April 2021, Badenoch criticised the Labour Party's response to a report compiled by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities that had declared Britain was not institutionally racist. Labour had described the report as "cherry-picking of data", while the party's former frontbench MP Dawn Butler claimed the report was "gaslighting on a national scale", describing those who put it together as "racial gatekeepers". Badenoch accused Labour of "wilful misrepresentations" over the report and responded to Butler's comments by stating "It is wrong to accuse those who argue for a different approach as being racism deniers or race traitors. It's even more irresponsible, dangerously so, to call ethnic minority people racial slurs like Uncle Toms, coconuts, house slaves or house negroes for daring to think differently."

In a Black History Month debate in the House of Commons in October 2020, she reiterated the government's opposition to primary and secondary schools teaching white privilege and similar "elements of critical race theory" as uncontested facts. ConservativeHome readers voted Badenoch's speech on critical race theory 2020 'speech of the year', in which she said that any school that teaches "elements of political race theory as fact, or which promotes partisan political views such as defunding the police without offering a balanced treatment of opposing views, is breaking the law".

During her leadership campaign launch, Badenoch expressed criticism of identity politics in a 2022 article for The Times, arguing that "identity politics is not about tolerance or individual rights, but the very opposite of our crucial and enduring British values."

PERSONAL LIFE

She is married to Hamish Badenoch; they have two daughters and a son. Hamish works for Deutsche Bank and was a Conservative councillor from 2014 to 2018 on Merton Borough Council, representing Wimbledon Village. He also unsuccessfully contested Foyle for the Northern Ireland Conservatives at the 2015 general election, coming in last place. Badenoch was a board member of the Charlton Triangle Homes housing association until 2016, and was also a school governor at St Thomas the Apostle College in Southwark, and the Jubilee Primary School.

ELECTRICITY

In August 2023 Environment Secretary Therese Coffey and former Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel were among high-profile MPs, including Kemi Badenoch, opposing plans for new power lines affecting their constituencies.

When the UK needs to upgrade the electricity grid, to try and take back control of pricing, where at the moment huge dividends are being paid to overseas investors thanks to Margaret Thatcher's big garage sale in the 1990s, rather then being ploughed back into reducing the cost of energy for lower paid workers as a basic human right. Electricity prices in other countries are far lower than in Britain. We need to think about embracing hydrogen as a possible alternative grid, that runs underground invisibly in pipes. One way of legitimately competing with the monopoly situation that should never have been created.

Other matters that affect the UK is the rising cancer rate, potholes that harm our transport infrastructure and plastic packaging and carcinogens in micro plastic causing biomagnification of toxins in humans. Pollution also being linked to the burning of fossil fuels, so adding to the cancerous environment, in the air we breathe and the food we eat. Cancer being the number one killer of humans.

CONTACT KEMI

Constituency Office:

Westminster Office
House of Commons

London, SW1A 0AA

The Old Armoury

3 Museum Street

Saffron Walden, CB10 1JN

Tel. 0207 219 1943
Email. kemi.badenoch.mp@parliament.uk

CABINET MPS -MARCH 2020

FOSSIL FOOLS - Geriatric politicians with 'climate-senile' policies will find in difficult to break away from their corrupt ways, as part time politicians with two jobs. Their main job being to find paid consultancy work, rather than craft policies and create statute that works to protect our voters from lung cancer, energy shortages and a lack of affordable (sustainable) housing.

The 'zerophobics' are the undertakers of the political world, sending millions of ordinary people to an early grave, while loading us with NHS, hospital and staff costs that would not be needed if we had clean air in our cities.

Basically, the longer you are in politics, the more likely you are to be exposed to bribes, from climate deniers, mostly fossil fuel and energy companies, looking to keep on pumping toxic fumes into the atmosphere, so they can keep making money. The political undertakers are working with them to keep hospitals stocked with cancer victims. They are blood sucking vampires, draining what little you had saved for your retirement.

CONSERVATIVE MPS 2017-2020

UK POLITICS

The United Kingdom has many political parties, some of which are represented in the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Below are links to the websites of the political parties that were represented in the House of Commons after the 2015 General Election:

CONSERVATIVE PARTY

CO-OPERATIVE PARTY

DEMOCRAT UNIONIST PARTY

GREEN PARTY

LABOUR PARTY

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

PLAID CYMRU

SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY

SINN FEIN

SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC AND LABOUR PARTY

UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY

ULSTER UNIONIST PARTY

Conservative Party

Co-operative Party

Democratic Unionist Party

Green Party

Labour Party

Liberal Democrats

Plaid Cymru

Scottish National Party

Sinn Féin

Social Democratic and Labour Party

UK Independence Party

Ulster Unionist Party

SIX (SUGGESTED) STEPS TOWARD A COOLER PLANET

1. TRANSPORT: Phase out polluting vehicles. Governments aim to end the sale of new petrol, and diesel vehicles by 2040 but have no infrastructure plan to support such ambition. Marine transport can be carbon neutral. Zero carbon shipping is gaining ground with offshore solar boat racers reaching 35knots (Delft University @ Monaco 2019). The first solar powered circumnavigation record was set in 2012 by PlanetSolar. 

2. RENEWABLES:  Renewable energy should replace carbon-based fuels (coal, oil and gas) in our electricity, heating and transport. We are well on the way to that with solar and wind power now price competitive to fossil fuels.

3. HOUSING: On site micro or macro generation is the best option, starting with new build homes that are affordable and built of wood for improved insulation and carbon lock. New units might not need planning consents if energy self-sufficient, or very nearly so. Planning consents should be struck for genuinely affordable/sustainable housing and self builds where cost is below £50,000.

4. AGRICULTURE: We need trees to absorb carbon emissions from a growing population, flying, and to build new homes. Reducing food waste and promoting less energy intensive eating habits such as no meat Mondays.

5. INDUSTRY: Factories should be aiming for solar heating and onsite renewable energy generation. This could be done simply by making it a 106 type (mitigation) condition of new builds that they include solar heating and photovoltaic panels. Too many units were built in the last 3 years without climate friendly features, such as EV charging points.

6. POLITICS: - National governing bodies need to adopt rules to eliminate administrative wastages, restrain local authority empire building, scale down spending on war machines, educate the public and support sustainable social policies that mesh with other cultures transparently. Ban kleptocratic policies. Open your doors to transparency and a new era of honest politics. Local authorities are famous for finding the loopholes to keep on doing favours for mates. Simply close those loopholes with binding statute. Any gray areas should be made black and white in writing. Even then councils will break the law, so introduce a task force to prosecute offending local authorities..

LINKS & REFERENCE

https://www.kemibadenoch.org.uk/

https://www.gov.uk/government/people/kemi-badenoch
https://twitter.com/kemibadenoch
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/25693/kemi_badenoch/saffron_walden
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/kemi-badenoch-44b688111

https://www.gov.uk/government/people/kemi-badenoch
https://twitter.com/kemibadenoch
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/25693/kemi_badenoch/saffron_walden
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/kemi-badenoch-44b688111

https://www.kemibadenoch.org.uk/