UK Conservatives pick Kemi Badenoch as new leader, first Black woman to head a big British party

Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Conservative Party has elected Kemi Badenoch as its new leader as it tries to rebound from a crushing election defeat that ended 14 years in power. Badenoch defeated rival lawmaker Robert Jenrick in a vote of almost 100,000 members of the right-of-center party. She is the first Black woman to lead a major British political party. Badenoch replaces former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who in July led the Conservatives to their worst election result since 1832. The Conservatives lost more than 200 seats, taking their tally down to 121. Badenoch is a 44-year-old former software engineer who argues for a low-tax, free-market economy and has pledged to “rewire, reboot and reprogram” the British state.