Kemi Badenoch is the Conservative MP for Saffron Walden, having first been elected to Parliament in 2017. Badenoch was re-elected in the 2019 General Election with a majority of 27,594.
The constituency of Saffron Walden is a rural seat located in the north west of Essex. It contains the towns of Saffron Walden, Haltstead and Great Dunmow. A safe Conservative constituency, it was formerly represented in Parliament by the leading post War Conservative and former Chancellor, Rab Butler. A relatively affluent area in which nearly three quarters of the electorate are home owners, it also includes Stansted Airport.
Badenoch was appointed as Minister of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in September 2021. She was formerly Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury between 2020 and 2021. She also serves as the government’s Equalities Minister.
Badenoch has defended both the police and race relations in Britain, and was quoted in the Evening Standard as saying, “They’re the best in the world. We don’t have all the horrible stuff that’s happened in America here. People pick on one bad experience, blow it up and say: ‘This is institutional racism’. That’s not to say race relations are perfect, but [Britain] is as good as it gets.”
Born in 1980, Badenoch was born in the UK but grew up in both America and Nigeria. Returning to the UK at the age of 16, she studied Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex.
She worked as a software engineer at Logica, as an Associate Director at Coutts Bank, and later as a the head of digital for The Spectator Magazine, before being elected to Parliament.
Badenoch was a Conservative member of the London Assembly, acting as the GLA Conservative’s spokesperson for the economy. She is also a former Vice-Chair of the Conservative Party
She is married with three children, and supported Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum. Her husband campaigned for Remain in the 2016 referendum and reportedly handed her a leaflet to that effect whilst campaigning at a railway station.
Email – kemi.badenoch.mp@parliament.uk
Website – www.kemibadenoch.org.uk
Twitter – @KemiBadenoch
