Former British Business Secretary, Kemi Badenoch, has been elected as the new leader of the Conservative Party.
The 44-year-old defeated Robert Jenrick in the final round of voting on Saturday.
Born in London and raised in Nigeria, Badenoch is the first black woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom.
She takes over from Rishi Sunak as leader of the opposition after winning 53,806 votes against 41,388 for Jenrick.
“We have to be honest about the fact we made mistakes” and “let standards slip,” she said.
“It is time to get down to business, it is time to renew,” she added.
Badenoch now faces the daunting task of reuniting a divided and weakened party that was emphatically ousted from power in July after 14 years in charge.
She becomes the official leader of the opposition and will face off against Labour’s Keir Starmer in the House of Commons every Wednesday for the traditional Prime Minister’s Questions.
However, she will be leading a much-reduced cohort of Tory MPs in the chamber following the party’s dismal election showing.
Badenoch will be expected to plot a strategy to regain public trust while stemming the flow of support to the right-wing Reform UK party, led by Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage.
Having campaigned on a right-wing platform, she also faces the prospect of future difficulties within the ranks of Tory lawmakers, which includes many centrists.
