Kemi Badenoch is a prominent politician in the United Kingdom. Since the year 2022, she has held the positions of Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade. She was elected to her position as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Saffron Walden in 2017, and she is affiliated with the Conservative Party.
Kemi Badenoch’s birth name is Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke, and she was born on January 2, 1980 in Wimbledon, London, England to Nigerian parents Femi Adegboke and Feyi Adegoke. Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch is her full name.
Before moving back to the United Kingdom when she was 16 years old, Kemi Badenoch had spent portions of her youth in both Lagos and the United States. She worked as a software engineer at Logica following her graduation from the University of Sussex, and then she went on to earn a law degree at Birkbeck, University of London.
Kemi Badenoch, who voted for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union in the referendum held in 2016, won a seat in the House of Commons in 2017. She ran for a position on the London Assembly in 2012, but was ultimately unsuccessful in her bid. However, she was eventually appointed to the body after Victoria Borwick resigned in 2015.
Her husband, Hamish Badenoch, is a banker who works for Deutsche Bank. They have three children together: a son, two daughters, and a son. Between the years of 2014 and 2018, her husband served as a Conservative councillor on the Merton Borough Council, representing the Wimbledon Village ward.
Kemi Badenoch asserts that her maternal grandpa was a Methodist preacher in Nigeria and identifies herself as a cultural Christian.
10 Facts About Kemi Badenoch
- Kemi Badenoch was born on January 2nd, 1980 in the neighbourhood of Wimbledon, which is located in the city of London. Her birth name is Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke.
- Kemi Badenoch is of Nigerian descent and was born to Nigerian parents, Femi Adegoke and Feyi Adegoke, respectively. She has a sibling who goes by the name Fola, and her sister’s name is Lola.
- She graduated from the University of Sussex and the University of London with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Systems Engineering and a Bachelor of Laws degree, respectively. In addition, she holds a Master of Engineering degree, which she received from the University of Sussex in 2003.
- In 2005, when she was 25 years old, Kemi Badenoch joined the Conservative Party. She was first elected to the London Assembly in September 2015, after the previous winner, Victoria Borwick, resigned and the fourth-placed candidate on the list, Suella Fernandes, who had previously been elected to the House of Commons, declined to take over.
- In Saffron Walden, a safe seat for her Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch was elected with 37,629 votes and a majority of 24,966. This was following a failed attempt to represent the Conservative Party in the 2017 general election by winning the very competitive Hampstead and Kilburn constituency.
- Boris Johnson, who was Prime Minister at the time, appointed Kemi Badenoch to the position of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families in July 2019.
- She was named Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Equalities) in the Department of International Trade and Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury in February of 2020.
- Kemi Badenoch was elevated in a government reshuffle in September 2021 and given additional responsibilities as Minister of State for Equalities and Minister of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government. The second title was changed to “Minister of State for Leveling Up Communities” within a few days of her taking office.
- In a joint statement with Ministers Alex Burghart, Neil O’Brien, Lee Rowley, and Julia Lopez, Kemi Badenoch announced her resignation from the cabinet on 6 July 2022, criticising Boris Johnson’s handling of the Chris Pincher incident.
- After Liz Truss became Prime Minister in September 2022, she named Kemi Badenoch to the positions of Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade.
