Kemi Badenoch grew up in 1980s Lagos, Nigeria, a world away culturally, politically and economically from Israel. But when it comes to the Jewish state, the new leader of U.K.’s Conservative Party and the first Black woman to head a major political party in England, feels Israel “in her kishkes,” attests the man she has tapped as shadow attorney general, Lord David Wolfson.

“She sees Israel for what it is, which is a democratic, pluralist state with Western values, with an independent judiciary and fighting to maintain that society in a very tough neighborhood,” Wolfson told Jewish Insider.

It has been a busy few days for the 44-year-old Badenoch, newly returned from Canada and the U.S., where she met with a host of politicians and public figures on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, at a time when that “tough neighborhood” has been dramatically altered in large part by Israel’s military defeats of the Iran-backed terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Badenoch replaced former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when she was voted into the top job by Conservative Party members last month. 

And although her party was decisively defeated in the country’s general election in July, Badenoch is wasting no time in building up her profile and influence. While in the U.S., she met with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. 

Vance, who will take office with President-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 20, posted a picture of himself and Badenoch in the U.S. on Sunday. 

“Great to see the leader of the UK conservatives, ⁦@KemiBadenoch⁩ during her trip to the US. We discussed many topics, but I was unable to persuade her that coffee is much better than tea. Cheers, Kemi!” Vance posted on X. 

Badenoch was in Washington to attend the 2024 conference of the International Democracy Union (IDU), whose tagline is “the global movement of the center right.”

It was at the conference where Badenoch gave a rousing speech outlining her journey into politics, which earned her a standing ovation. Among those she met with were House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Pierre Poilievre, candidate for Canadian prime minister, and former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the latter of whom praised her speech as a “powerful message” supporting freedom and democracy. 

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A member of Parliament for North West Essex since 2017, Badenoch has emerged as a rising star in the Conservative Party and was appointed to numerous key roles while in government, including as secretary of state for business and trade and as minister for women and equalities. 

Born Olukemi Adegoke in Wimbledon, south-west London, in 1980 Badenoch grew up in Nigeria where her father, a family doctor, and her mother, a physiology professor, are from. 

She returned to Britain at 16 to finish her high school education, going on to study computer engineering at Sussex University, followed by a second degree in law. 

Badenoch referenced her upbringing in Nigeria in the speech that she delivered to the IDU last week, saying, “I’m a child of the ’80s. I was born in London, but I grew up in Lagos, Nigeria – Lagos was a place where almost everything seemed broken. I grew up under a military dictatorship. I would never have believed that 40 years later, I would be standing here as the leader of the world’s most successful political party in the history of Western democracy.”

Her rise has been welcomed by many who believe she has the potential to bring the famously fragmented party together. Among them is Wolfson. 

Wolfson, a full-time barrister who previously stepped down from Boris Johnson’s government in protest over the “partygate” scandal that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, commended Badenoch in a recent conversation with JI. 

“There were several good candidates for leader but I think that under her we can really have a good opportunity to refocus ourselves, work out what we stand for and provide real opposition to the government,” Wolfson said, adding that he first got to know her when they were in government together. 

The speech Badenoch gave at the IDU conference clarified her positions on many issues, as she attacked identity politics and declared that “liberalism has been hacked.” 

She cemented her position as a darling of the right, as she spoke out against issues such as migration, cancel culture and “the expansion of the state.” 

Wolfson praised Badenoch’s interpersonal skills.

“Kemi often says that she has a background in engineering where you need to identify the problem and then think of the solution and she’s very focussed on identifying problems, ie, what is it that we’re actually trying to solve? What’s the issue here?”

“Once she’s thought it through and she’s spoken to people and worked out what her position is then she’s very focussed and very determined — she doesn’t jump into things,” he added. “She’s thoughtful, she reads widely, she speaks to people who you might be surprised she speaks to, in the sense of people who wouldn’t always be on her side. That can be quite rare in politics.”

Wolfson said that while he is “pleased by the fact that we have a Black woman leader,” he is also “pleased by the fact that people aren’t making a huge fuss of the fact that we have a Black woman leader.”

“She’s very much there on her own merit and she has said that she doesn’t want to be defined by her background or her gender. I do think what’s interesting sometimes is that people assume because she’s a Black woman therefore she must think x, y, z, and because she doesn’t think x, y, z a number of people seem to get rather annoyed by that.”

“I think the obvious thing that Kemi represents is that you can be a Black woman and be Conservative, you can be a white male and vote Labour. 

“There’s no reason why your political stance should be determined by your own characteristics — your political stance ought to be determined by what you honestly think is best for the nation and Kemi is driven passionately by what she believes is best for Britain,” Wolfson added.

During her IDU speech, Badenoch, who has three children with her husband, banker Hamish Badenoch, referenced her own experiences and background multiple times, including an incident where a teacher told her that her aspirations were “too high” despite the fact that she was an A student.

It was this incident that inspired her interest in politics, she said, as she found there to be a “hypocrisy” in the rhetoric coming from the left. 

“When it comes to supporting Israel, she’s resolute and she doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk as well. She’s active, she appears at events, she speaks on platforms, she signs letters, she stands up in parliament,” Lord David Wolfson said.

“Growing up in a place where everyone looked like me inoculated me against the fashionable and nonsensical notion of white privilege, or that oppression was primarily related to skin-color,” she said.

A vocal critic of “wokeism” — or as she referred to it in her speech, “progressive authoritarianism” — she also spoke of her hopes for working with the future U.S. government. 

She said that the “right to protest is used as a cover to carry out intimidation,” highlighting incidents around the world where posters of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza have been ripped down. 

“When it comes to supporting Israel, she’s resolute and she doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk as well. She’s active, she appears at events, she speaks on platforms, she signs letters, she stands up in parliament,” Wolfson said.

“She’s with Israel like she is with everything else — she thinks things through and she argues it courageously, unashamedly and pretty forcefully.”

Badenoch laid out her position in no uncertain terms before she was elected, when she reacted angrily to the decision of Prime Minister Keir Starmer to cancel arms licenses to Israel. 

She said in September that Starmer had “caved to the mob,” adding that his “weakness undermines U.K. interests.”

She slammed the move as a “political decision,” saying, “To abandon Israel in its fight against this terrorist group [Hamas], as it simultaneously defends itself from Iranian missiles, would not only be morally reprehensible but it would be counter to British interests.”

A spokesperson for the Conservative Friends of Israel told Jewish Insider that Badenoch “demonstrated her staunch support for Israel and the U.K.’s Jewish community during her time in Government and throughout the leadership contest.”  

“She is very strongly supportive of the various needs of the Jewish community,” a spokesperson for the Conservative Friends of Israel said.  “She understands where the community is coming from. She understands what it means to be a British Jew in 2024, thoroughly committed to the success of Britain — also, and at the same time, strongly identifying with Israel. She gets that. 

The CFI spokesperson told JI that the group “looks forward to working with Kemi to further promote U.K.-Israel ties and to continue to oppose the Labour government’s harmful policies on Israel.” 

That relationship is not just about Israel but also Britain’s Jewish community, which she staunchly defends, according to Wolfson. 

“She is very strongly supportive of the various needs of the Jewish community,” he said, adding that she has visited schools and met with numerous community figures. 

“She understands where the community is coming from. She understands what it means to be a British Jew in 2024, thoroughly committed to the success of Britain — also, and at the same time, strongly identifying with Israel. She gets that. 

“I wish we had more leaders like that.”