Women in business – Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch

Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch née Adegoke; was born January 1980 and is a British Conservative politician and Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden. Adegoke was born in Wimbledon, London to parents of Nigerian origin. Her childhood was spent in Lagos, Nigeria and the United States. She moved to the United Kingdom at the age of sixteen. After studying Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex, she worked as a software engineer at Logica. Adegoke went on to work at RBS as a systems analyst before working as an associate director at Coutts and later as a director at The Spectator magazine.

In 2012, Badenoch unsuccessfully contested a seat at the London Assembly. Three years later, Badenoch was selected as a London Assembly member after Suella Braverman and Victoria Borwick declined their seats after being elected as MPS at the 2015 general election. She supported Brexit in the 2016 EU membership referendum. Badenoch was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Saffron Walden on 8 June 2017 following the retirement of former deputy speaker Alan Haselhurst, she became the first woman to represent that constituency.

Adegoke studied Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex. She initially worked within the IT sector first as a software engineer at Logica (later CGI Group). While working there, she studied part-time at Birkbeck, University of London and obtained a Law degree in 2009.

She then worked as a systems analyst at RBS, before pursuing a career in consultancy and financial services, working as an associate director of private bank and wealth manager Coutts and later a director at the conservative magazine The Spectator.

Olukemi joined the Conservative Party in 2005 at the age of 25. In 2010, she contested the Dulwich and West Norwood constituency against Labour’s Tessa Jowell and came third behind Jowell, and Jonathan Mitchell (the Liberal Democrat candidate).

Two years later, she stood for the Conservatives in the London Assembly election where she was placed fifth on the London

wide list. The election saw the Conservatives win only three seats from the London-wide list, so she was not elected.

She supported Brexit in the 2016 European Union membership referendum. Badenoch supports a repeal of the ban on fox hunting.

Badenoch was elected as MP for the Saffron Walden constituency in the 2017 general election with 37,629 votes and a majority of a 24,966 (41.0%). She had also made the shortlist to be the Conservative Party candidate in the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency.

In her maiden speech on the 19 July, she described the vote for Brexit as “the greatest ever vote of confidence in the project of the United Kingdom” and cited her personal heroes as the Conservative politicians Winston Churchill, Airey Neave, and Margaret Thatcher. In the same month, Badenoch was selected to join the 1922 Executive Committee. In September, she was appointed to the parliamentary Justice Select Committee. The following month, Badenoch was listed at Number 96 on Conservative political commentator Iain Dale’s “100 most influential on the Right 2017”.

She was appointed as the Conservative Party’s Vice Chair for Candidates in January 2018.

In July 2019, Badenoch was appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Olukemi is married to Hamish Badenoch and they have one daughter and one son. Hamish works for Deutsche Bank and was a Conservative councillor on the Merton London Borough Council.

On her latest appointment, she says “I’m humbled to have been appointed a junior minister at the DFE. A huge privilege to be able to serve and make a positive difference on a number of issues close to my heart. I look forward to working with the ministerial team and everyone at @educationgovuk”. She said.

The children’s minister’s role includes elements of schools policy including special educational needs and high needs funding, safeguarding in schools, disadvantaged pupils, school sport and healthy pupils and the social mobility opportunity areas.