Kemi Badenoch announces Conservative leadership bid

Kemi Badenoch has officially announced her bid to become the new leader of the Conservative Party.

The former women and equalities minister said she would return the party to its “first principles” if she wins.

The Tories need to focus on “doing some things well, not everything badly,” and to recover from the battering they got at the general election, she added.

“My campaign is launching with an explicit focus on renewing our party for 2030, the first full year we can be back in government and the first year of a new decade,” she told The Times.

“We will renew by starting from first principles. We can’t control immigration until we reconfirm our belief in the nation-state and the sovereign duty it has, above all else, to serve its own citizens.”

Badenoch had been heavily expected to announce her leadership bid following Rishi Sunak’s decision to step down, in the wake of the heavy losses at the polls on 4 July. According various media outlets, she is seen as the frontrunner in the race.

At the time of reporting, five other candidates have put their names forward to lead the party: James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Mel Stride, Tom Tugendhat and Priti Patel. Despite seemingly angling to lead the party for some time, former home secretary Suella Braverman announced that she would not be standing.

Where does Kemi Badenoch stand on trans rights?

Shadow housing secretary Badenoch has a controversial history when it comes to trans rights, particularly during her tenure as women and equalities minister.

In 2023, she petitioned the Equality and Human Rights Commission, an organisation criticised for its stance on trans rights, to review the 2010 Equality Act and change the definition of sex to exclude transgender people. Despite a pushback from the public, including a petition with more than 100,000 signatures urging the government to reconsider, Badenoch forged ahead.

During a cross-party committee hearing last December, Badenoch pushed back the possibility of a blanket ban on so-called conversion therapy, saying that trans people were “complicating” the issue.

“If we want to ban the T in terms of conversion practices, how do we define that?” she asked, seemingly unaware that the T already stands for transgender. “That is not something defined in law, it is very difficult to do so.”

The deadline has now passed for anyone else to put their name forward for the role. Four candidates will be shortlisted by MPs in September to make their pitch at that month’s Conservative Party conference and in the period leading up to it.

MPs will then narrow the list to just two names before grassroots members elect the new leader in early November.