Kemi Badenoch elected leader of UK’s Conservative Party

Kemi Badenoch has won the race to become the new leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, pledging to return it to its founding principles and win back voters after its disastrous election defeat in July.

Badenoch, 44, came out on top in the two-horse race with former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, winning 57 percent of the votes of party members.

She received 53,806 votes, while Jenrick got 41,388 votes from the 131,680 eligible electors. The party placed turnout at 72.8 percent.

Badenoch replaces former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and has pledged to lead the party through a period of renewal, saying it had veered towards the political centre by “governing from the left” and must return to its traditional ideas.

The first Black woman leader of a major political party in the UK, Badenoch said becoming leader was an “enormous honour”.

The combative former equalities minister faces the daunting task of reuniting a divided and weakened party that was emphatically removed from power in July after 14 years in charge.