Kemi Badenoch launches Tory leadership campaign with focus on immigration, other principles

British-Nigerian politician Kemi Badenoch has launched her campaign expressing her intention to become the next leader of the UK’s Conservative Party, the major opposition to the ruling Labour Party.

Badenoch, who served as the business secretary under the Rishi Sunak-led government and Secretary of State for International Trade under Boris Johnson flies a “Renewal 2030” campaign flag. “I’m giving back for the next decade so 2030 is pointing towards the future not fighting the battes of the past,” she said in a campaign video released today.

She joins four other candidates seeking to replace her former boss including former home secretary James Cleverly, after the party’s failure at the last UK general election which saw Conservatives Member of Parliaments cut down to 121 MPs from 365 MPs in 2019.

“We had generally let the public down and let ourselves down. They were rightly telling us that it was our time to leave, and to watch two-thirds of us just lose like that was extremely painful,” she said during the launch of her leadership campaign.

The 44-year-old MP took a jab at the Starmer-led administration apparently displeased at the actions and policies of the ruling party. She stated that the people “are yearning for something better, and this Labour government is not it.

“We have to focus on renewal. The renewal of our party, politics and our thinking, and it starts with principles.”

The government cannot solve all our problems

“First I believe in personal responsibility. The government cannot solve all our problems and nor should it try to,” she told party members during the campaign launch. Badenoch believes the government should nurture a fair and safe society in which people can prosper by their own efforts. “A government that tries to do everything will likely end up achieving nothing. It will also run out of everybody’s money. This was one of our mistakes We took right but governed left. Sounding like conservatives but acting like Labour. Government should do fewer things but better, with brilliance,” she said.

A country belongs to its citizens

Badenoch’s campaign speech indicates an intention to continue with the immigration policies implemented during Sunak’s time in office that restricted visa benefits to cut migration numbers. For years, UK citizens have pinned unaffordable and inaccessible housing on a surge in immigrants who take up their jobs and beds.

“A country belongs to its citizens. It is nothing without them. We cannot treat their needs or concerns as secondary or inconvenient or of a lower priority than anyone else. People should not be made to feel guilty for questioning levels of immigration legal or illegal if it is changing the place they know and love,” she said.

Badenoch, born in Wimbledon to Nigerian parents, lived between the US and the UK until her permanent relocation to the UK with her parents at age 16. She believes the government should not hesitate to make harsh decisions on migrants when necessary, a statement targeted at Starmer’s suspension of the plan to relocate illegal immigrants or asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing and resettlement.

“Government should not be shy of doing whatever it takes to change things. If people don’t want their taxes to pay for foreign criminals to be in our jails or on our streets, those criminals should be removed,” she said. “If they want local people to have priority for housing for benefits for school places we must make that happen. Our country is not a dormitory for people just here to make money or hotel for those passing through. It is our home and no one else will look after it.”

Equality under the law

“If citizenship is to mean something then our laws must apply equally to all citizens, anything else breeds division and resentment.” Badenoch said. The aspiring party leader says her experience in government helped her see “just how maligning and destructive identity politics had become.” She said laws brought in to protect everyone were used by left wingers to protect certain groups over others. “It’s the sort of politics we need to defeat and defeat quickly.”

Government just doesn’t get family

Badenoch argues that the decisions of the government neglects the values of family and does not reflect the values of family, but places them at the “center of politics.”

“Government just doesn’t get family,” she said. “It wants to help with child care not because it loves children but so that their moms can get back to work quickly. We need to celebrate families…for the good of society not for the good of the treasury.”

Truth not spin

The aspiring Tory leader expressed her strong belief in truth, which she says is lacking in government. “I think politics is better when we tell it like it is. Spin can only get you so far it is better to deal with hard truths today than big problems tomorrow and this has been the central failure of politics for 25 years maybe even longer.”

“For too long politics has just been about working out what the voters want to hear and then saying it back to them,” Kemi said, insisting on more actions and less words. “That has to change because principles only mean something if you turn them into action policy without action is just chat.”