All posts tagged: Kemi

Kemi Badenoch Hits Back Against Trump Calling Zelensky A “Dictator”

Kemi Badenoch Hits Back Against Trump Calling Zelensky A “Dictator”

Published by Sam

Kemi Badenoch became the leader of the Conservative Party in November 2024 (Alamy) 2 min read19 February Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has posted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “not a dictator”, in a response to comments made by US President Donald Trump. This week, US and Russian officials have started discussions in Saudi Arabia on ending the war in Ukraine. European leaders held an emergency summit on Monday after it emerged that talks in Saudi Arabia would go ahead without representation from Ukraine or Europe. On Wednesday, Trump made a post seemingly blaming Zelensky for continuing the war and called him a “Dictator without Election”. In turn, Zelensky accused Trump of living in a “disinformation space” created by the Kremlin. Badenoch, who has previously accused the current Labour government of engaging in “student politics” with the Trump administration, today condemned Trump’s comments. “President Zelensky is not a dictator,” the leader of the opposition posted on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. “He is the democratically elected leader of Ukraine who bravely stood up to Putin’s illegal invasion. Under my leadership, and …

100 Days Of Kemi Badenoch

100 Days Of Kemi Badenoch

Published by Sam

14 min read08 February As leader of the opposition Kemi Badenoch has what is often regarded as the worst job in politics, and for that her party is giving her the benefit of the doubt. But she faces an uphill battle to turn around Tory fortunes, before the party turns on her, Tali Fraser reports. Lee Rowley, Kemi Badenoch’s chief of staff and closest political friend, sat the shadow cabinet down at its first meeting of 2025 and set out the Tories’ path from its worst election result in centuries back to No 10. Rowley, once of KPMG, has dubbed his master plan the ‘Three, Five’ strategy. It has three, year-long phases: admit mistakes, build credibility, win power. These are to be navigated by five objectives: to win, to rebuild, to compete, to gain public trust and to jump ahead – informed by learning from sister parties abroad. Like most such political strategies, however, Rowley’s ‘Three, Five’ has had an awkward encounter with reality since its launch from the whiteboard. And …

So empire and the slave trade contributed little to Britain’s wealth? Pull the other one, Kemi Badenoch | Will Hutton

So empire and the slave trade contributed little to Britain’s wealth? Pull the other one, Kemi Badenoch | Will Hutton

Published by skeptic

Britain ran an empire for centuries that at its peak 100 years ago occupied just under a quarter of the world’s land area. Yet if you believe “Imperial Measurement”, a report released last week from the rightwing Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), the net economic impact of this vast empire on Britain was negligible, even negative. If you thought the empire profoundly shaped our industry, trade and financial institutions, with slavery an inherent part of the equation, helped turbocharge the Industrial Revolution and underwrote what was the world’s greatest navy for 150 years, think again. The contribution of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people to our economy was trumped by domestic brewing and sheep farming, opines the IEA. The tax “burden” of defending this barely profitable empire was not worth the candle. Instead, it was free-market economics that unleashed British economic growth – a truth that must be restated before Marxists and reparation-seeking ex-colonies start controlling the narrative. It is a risible recasting of history that should have been ignored as self-serving ideological tosh. But enter …

Kemi Badenoch infection fury over gender-neutral school toilets | Politics | News

Kemi Badenoch infection fury over gender-neutral school toilets | Politics | News

Published by skeptic

Girls have developed urinary tract infections because they did not want to use their school’s gender-neutral toilets, Kemi Badenoch has said. The Women and Equalities minister said it was “terrible” that pupils had come down with infections, despite the school believing they were following correct guidance. It comes as Ms Badenoch urged members of the public to provide examples of state bodies failing to provide single-sex spaces, amid concern that the NHS, local councils and others are misinterpreting guidance. She told LBC: “We are looking for examples where a public institution is either issuing guidance or has a policy that is not in accordance with the Equalities Act when it comes to single sex spaces. “If I were to give an example of a school that had gender-neutral toilets and young girls there didn’t want to use the same toilets as boys so they weren’t going to the toilet at school and got urinary tract infections. She added: “This is obviously a terrible thing but the school thought they were following guidance because they had …

Kemi Badenoch Challenges Rwanda Policy With Single Remark

Kemi Badenoch Challenges Rwanda Policy With Single Remark

Published by skeptic

Kemi Badenoch appeared to undermine the whole point of the government’s Rwanda plan after saying she knows someone “having a very lovely gap year” there. However, the arrangement is completely different to the government’s controversial plan to forcibly deport migrants to Rwanda. On LBC this morning, Badenoch said: “This is somebody who has actually volunteered to go to Rwanda, which puts to bed this nonsensical myth that Rwanda was not a safe place. It is. “People go on holiday there, I know somebody who is having a very lovely gap year there and we need to move past a lot of the myths, which are actually just disparaging about an African country.” But many social media users pointed out that her comments appeared to contradict the whole point of the government’s Rwanda policy. Rishi Sunak has insisted that sending migrants there will act as a deterrent and stop more asylum seekers from trying to get to the UK in small boats across the Channel from France. Source link

Kemi Badenoch Disputes Journalist Over Culture Wars Narrative

Kemi Badenoch Disputes Journalist Over Culture Wars Narrative

Published by skeptic

Kemi Badenoch clashed with a Times Radio presenter after being accused of “stoking the culture wars” over trans issues. The business secretary has called on people to give examples of how public bodies use incorrect guidance on access to single-sex spaces. She said she wanted to “tackle any confusion” which there might be on the matter. Appearing on Times Radio this morning, presenter Aasmah Mir asked Badenoch: “What happens if there are very few examples? The reason I ask that is because clearly there are some people who might be confused. “Is this just stoking the culture wars? This is something that’s very tiny, doesn’t really happen that often.” But the minister hit back: “I do take issue with you calling this culture wars. Four years ago, when I was alerting people to the danger of puberty blockers, and a lot of the issues that we had in clinics, people like you were accusing me of fighting culture wars. “I think it’s really important that especially when journalists talk about this, that you take the …

Kemi Badenoch slams Sadiq Khan’s knife crime joke days before Hainault attack | Politics | News

Kemi Badenoch slams Sadiq Khan’s knife crime joke days before Hainault attack | Politics | News

Published by skeptic

Kemi Badenoch tore into Sadiq Khan this morning, accusing him of not taking knife crime seriously. She blasted a joke he made when his Tory opponent, Susan Hall, raised London stabbings, accusing him of laughing about concerns. Ms Badenoch told Sky News that tackling knife offences is a “very high priority for the Government”, but pointed out policing is devolved in London to the mayor. She said: “This is his duty to resolve, and in my view he is failing. Sadiq Khan is failing. “It’s one of the things that we have seen become totemic in terms of the campaign that’s taking place at the moment. “Tomorrow there are mayoral elections in London, and just a few days ago he was laughing at his Conservative opponent Susan Hall, who brought up knife crime and talked about people wielding machetes. “He laughed at her, and said that she should ‘stop watching The Wire’. “That to me indicates that he is not taking this issue seriously enough. He should have been talking about what he was doing, …

With her comments on slavery, Kemi Badenoch shows a poor grasp of history | Kemi Badenoch

With her comments on slavery, Kemi Badenoch shows a poor grasp of history | Kemi Badenoch

Published by skeptic

Your article quotes the business secretary, Kemi Badenoch, claiming that the UK’s wealth “was not due to colonial history or racial privilege” (Kemi Badenoch: ‘UK’s wealth isn’t from white privilege and colonialism’, 18 April) Ms Badenoch is misinformed, and if she was interested in the local history of the place where she was born, Wimbledon in London, she would know that it was the centre of Britain’s initial involvement in the slave trade, from which that locality and Britain gained huge wealth. Wimbledon’s oldest and most costly house, the Old Rectory (a stone’s throw from the All England Lawn Tennis Club), was the home of William Cecil, the secretary of state and lord treasurer to Elizabeth I. It was Cecil who persuaded Elizabeth I to provide the first British ship to participate in the slave trade. The ship, part of the British navy, was called the Jesus of Lubeck and was captained by the slave trader and pirate John Hawkins. Both Elizabeth I and Cecil funded Britain’s and Hawkins’ first slaving trips in the 1560s. Peter …

Kemi Badenoch Votes Against Rishi Sunak’s Smoking Ban

Kemi Badenoch Votes Against Rishi Sunak’s Smoking Ban

Published by skeptic

Kemi Badenoch and other senior Tories voted against Rishi Sunak’s phased smoking ban in a bodyblow to the prime minister’s authority. The cabinet minister said before the vote she could not support the Tobacco and Vapes Bill because she believes in the “principle of equality under the law”. MPs voted in favour of the bill by 383 to 67 at its second reading in parliament. Some 59 Conservatives voted again the legislation, but Labour support means the bill is likely to sail through parliament. The PM’s plan will make it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone currently 15 or younger. The legal age for buying tobacco – currently 18 – would increase every year by one year so that people born in or after 2009 will never legally be able to buy cigarettes. Tory MPs have been granted a free vote, meaning they can vote with their personal conscience rather than follow the official party line, giving libertarian-minded Conservatives the chance to register their unease without consequence. Badenoch’s rebellion is significant as she is …

Kemi Badenoch should value diversity schemes. Attacking them does wonders for her career | Nels Abbey

Kemi Badenoch should value diversity schemes. Attacking them does wonders for her career | Nels Abbey

Published by skeptic

The lady is for turning. And contradicting too. The lady is Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, minister for women and equalities, and now the Conservative party’s great Black hope. Which must come in handy as hope (with a dash of diversity-drenched “anti-wokeness”) appears to be the Tories’ only strategy to be remotely competitive at the next election. Or the one after that. Badenoch, the would-be PM, is on manoeuvres. Within a matter of days of assailing her own anti-liberal brand and shocking practically everyone by labelling Frank Hester’s obviously racist comments about Diane Abbott as racist, Badenoch quickly returned to form by dismissing the same comments as “trivia”. Now, to avoid the possibility that any single voter who might smooth her path to No 10 confuses her for an anti-racist activist, Badenoch has sharpened and sunk her teeth into the concept she is oft described as a Tory poster child for: diversity. On Wednesday, the minister unveiled, most noticeably via a front page in the Daily Telegraph, a report on workplace diversity titled Inclusion at …