July 17, (THEWILL) – Last week, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, resigned his appointment after he was caught up in a parliamentary expenses scandal and breaking of lockdown rules in 2020, among other allegations.
Following his resignation, Nigerian-born Kemi Badenoch, who is a member of the Conservative Party, signified interest in taking over Johnson’s seat. Badenoch was the Minister of State for Equalities from 2021 to 2022, but she resigned her appointment because of her interest in the British Prime Minister’s job.
Born in Wimbledon, London to Nigerian parents, Mrs Femi and Feyi Adegoke, she grew up in Lagos State, but returned to the UK when she was 16 years. Her father is a medical practitioner while her mother is a professor of Physiology. She obtained her A Levels from Phoenix College and later studied Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex. She worked as a software engineer at Logica and later moved to the Royal Bank of Scotland Group as a system analyst before working as an associate director at Coutts.
She was also a director of The Spectator magazine. Her foray into politics started in 2005 at the age of 25 years. Her first experience at the polls was in 2010 when she contested the Dulwich and West Norwood constituency against Labour’s Tessa Jowell and came third. She served as the Minister of State for local Government, Faith and Communities and Minister of State for Equalities between 2021 and 2022. She is married to Hamish Badenoch, a banker with Deutsche bank and they have two daughters.
