Kemi Badenoch has said her party will “end the confusion” over the legal definition of sex if elected.
The Conservative Party has said it will shake up the Equality Act to rewrite the definition of sex and allow organisations to bar transgender women from single-sex spaces, including hospitals and sport events.
The party has claimed it will put in place laws to protect the characteristic of sex to mean a person’s biological sex.
She said: “Whether it is rapists being housed in women’s prisons or instances of men playing in women’s sports where they have an unfair advantage, it is clear that public authorities and regulatory bodies are confused about what the law says on sex and gender and when to act – often for fear of being accused of transphobia or not being inclusive.
“That is why we are pledging that, if we form a government after the election, we will clarify that sex in the law means biological sex and not new, redefined meanings of the word. The protection of women and girls’ spaces is too important to allow the confusion to continue.”
Here’s who Kemi Badenoch is.
How did Kemi Badenoch become business and trade secretary?
Olukemi Olufunto “Kemi” Badenoch, to give her full name, has had a long career within the Conservative party and has been tipped consistently for big things.
Becoming the Conservative MP for Saffron Walden in 2017, she served as international trade secretary before taking up her current role.
“There are always tough choices in life and in politics; no free lunches, no tax cuts without limits on government spending, no stronger defence without a slimmer state,” she said at the time.
Her bid was backed by more than a dozen Tory colleagues, including Michael Gove. However, she ultimately lost out to Liz Truss in the Tory party leadership campaign, finishing fourth.
Ms Badenoch, 44, was international trade secretary from September 2022 to February 2023 and was made minister of women and equalities in 2022, a post that she retains alongside being business secretary.
Her promotion was part of a wider departmental shake-up, with the prime minister splitting the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy into three new departments.
What is Kemi Badenoch’s political background?
Born in Wimbledon, Ms Badenoch lived in the US and Nigeria as a child before returning to the UK aged 16.
She has talked about working at McDonald’s while studying for her A-levels in Morden.
After graduating from the University of Sussex with a master’s degree in computer systems engineering, she worked for companies including the Royal Bank of Scotland, private bank Coutts and the Spectator magazine.
She joined the Conservative party in 2005, aged 25.
Five years later, she stood as the Tory candidate in Dulwich and West Norwood, coming third in the vote won by Labour’s Tessa Jowell.
Born in Wimbledon, Ms Badenoch lived in the US and Nigeria as a child before returning to the UK aged 16
PA Wire
In 2012, she stood for the Conservatives in the London Assembly election. The party won only three seats and Ms Badenoch came fifth on its London-wide list behind Suella Braverman in fourth, meaning she was not elected.
At the 2015 general election, assembly member Victoria Borwick was elected as a Tory MP and resigned her seat. Ms Braverman declined to fill the vacancy as she also won a seat in the Commons. Ms Badenoch was therefore able to take up the seat in City Hall in September 2015. She went on to retain it at the 2016 London Assembly elections.
She was the London Tory spokesman for the economy and also sat on the transport committee and policing and crime committee.
In the 2017 election, she stood in the safe Conservative seat of Saffron Walden in Essex and was elected to parliament.
She has described herself as an example of the “British dream”, an “immigrant who came to the UK aged 16 and who became a parliamentarian” in one generation. She cites Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher as two of her heroes.
Her father, Femi Adegoke, was a GP and her mother, Feyi Adegoke, was a professor of physiology.
What was Kemi Badenoch’s position on Brexit?
Ms Badenoch was a supporter of Brexit. In a rousing maiden speech in Parliament, she described the referendum as “the greatest ever vote of confidence in the project of the United Kingdom”.
Her banker husband, Hamish, a former Merton Conservative councillor, was a staunch Remainer.
“We have had robust arguments but respect each other’s view,” Ms Badenoch told the Independent in 2017.
The HuffPost reporter had asked the equalities minister’s office about suggestions Ms Badenoch had refused to participate in a video featuring black cross-party politicians seeking to promote the Covid-19 vaccination.
Screenshots of Ms White’s two emails were shared on Twitter by Ms Badenoch, who branded them “creepy and bizarre”. Labour called for an investigation and Ms White said the MP’s actions set a dangerous precedent, threatening the role of a free press.
Ms Badenoch has admitted hacking Harriet Harman’s website in 2008 as part of a “foolish prank”. She had guessed the Labour MP’s password and then posted a hoax blog post claiming that the then-minister for women and equality was supporting Boris Johnson in the London elections.
Screenshot of tweets sent by Kemi Badenoch and Nadine White
Screenshot
In 2018, she told Core Politics: “About 10 years ago I hacked into… a Labour MP’s website and I changed all the stuff in there to say nice things about Tories.”
In May 2023, Sir Lindsay Hoyle was unhappy that the announcement of a U-turn on scrapping EU laws after Brexit had been made in the form of a written statement to MPs rather than being presented to the House of Commons.
During the debate, Sir Lindsay snapped: “Who do you think you’re speaking to?” This was after Ms Badenoch had said she was sorry the timing of the announcement was “not to your satisfaction”.
MPs also criticised Ms Badenoch for her “tin ear” and “patronising” approach in response to questions over the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.