by Mick the Ram

Kemi Badenoch has begun assembling her shadow cabinet after comprehensively defeating rival Robert Jenrick to be elected as the new leader of the Tory party.

Ms Badenoch secured 53,806 votes, comfortably beating her opponent’s total of 41,388 following a long drawn out leadership contest lasting four months.

Mr Jenrick was handed the role of shadow justice secretary to soften the blow, this after former prime minister Rishi Sunak, former chancellor Jeremy Hunt, and former home secretary James Cleverly, all confirmed before hand that they would not serve in a shadow ministerial team, irrespective of the winner, announcing that they all saw time on the backbenches as a preference.

The new head of the opposition became the first Black leader of any Westminster party and the 44-year-old immediately vowed to reset the party’s thinking and politics, after its catastrophic election defeat in the summer.

The former business secretary also becomes the fourth woman to lead the Conservative Party, following in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May and Liz Truss.

Call for support from party chair

There was a turnout that was equivalent to 73% of the party’s 131,680 members with Kemi Badenoch winning 57% of the vote, giving her a conclusive victory.

Following the result, party chair Richard Fuller urged members to give the new leader “our full support” and told them to get out into their communities to help “rebuild trust with the electorate”.

Huge honour

Ms Badenoch was born in Wimbledon, South London and was raised in a middle class environment – with her parents being a doctor and academic – in Nigeria, before she returned to the UK to study in her teens.

In her acceptance speech, she insisted that the task facing the party was pretty simple and that was to hold Labour to account, before preparing for government over the coming years.

She said: “the time has come to tell the truth” accepting that the Tories had made mistakes and let their standards slip, before stressing it is the “most enormous honour” to be elected to “lead the party that I love”.

Backing from former PM’s

Her predecessor, Rishi Sunak, echoed the party chief’s sentiments, calling for a united front and backed his replacement’s credentials, saying: “I know that she will be a superb leader of our great party.

“She will renew our party, stand up for Conservative values, and take the fight to Labour.”

Another former leader, Boris Johnson, also seemed relatively happy with the direction the party look to be heading, remarking that Ms Badenoch brings “a much needed zing and zap to the Conservative Party”.

Government welcome

There were congratulations from the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, who stressed that her election to become the first Black leader of a Westminster party “is a proud moment for our country.”

He said he looked forward to working with her and her party “in the interests of the British people.”

The Liberal Democrats were not so forthcoming with their congratulations and instead branded the appointments a “cabinet of contradictions” and “a recipe for yet more Conservative chaos”.

Jobs for the rivals

Ms Badenoch beat five contenders to take the top position. As well as Mr Jenrick, she also saw off former home secretary James Cleverly, former pensions secretary Mel Stride, ex-home secretary Dame Priti Patel, and ex-security minister Tom Tugendhat.

Mr Cleverly had already ruled himself out of taking any position in the re-hashed cabinet. Of the others, all but Mr Tugendhat were given jobs under Ms Badenoch, with Mr Stride being handed the shadow chancellor role, whilst Ms Patel was given the responsibility of taking on the shadow foreign secretary post.

Unity the important factor

Uniting the party is a major desire for the new regime and by involving some of her rivals for the leadership in her cabinet, alongside figures from different wings of the party, Ms Badenoch will be hoping the Conservatives can turn a corner, after suffering their worst ever general election defeat back in July.