Kemi Badenoch has long proved herself to be a gaffe-prone politician – and that trend has not ended since she was elected Tory leader.
In the the race to replace Rishi Sunak, the former Business Secretary found herself at the mercy of headline after headline amid interview car crashes and bizarre moments.
At the Tory conference in September, she caused a huge row after claiming maternity pay was “overburdening businesses”. Elsewhere during the conference she said between 5% and 10% of civil servants are “should-be-in-prison bad”. This would mean between 25,000 and 50,000 were put behind bars. During the same month she was mocked after claiming she became working class when she got a job in McDonalds.
Since becoming the leader of the Conservative Party on November 2, Ms Badenoch has had a rocky road. Her performances at the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions clash with Keir Starmer have been branded underwhelming – and the latest YouGov polling shows more than half of Brits think she does not look like a Prime Minister in waiting.
Here The Mirror takes a look at some of her top gaffes and weird moments since becoming Tory leader.
1. Partygate was ‘overblown’
A day after becoming Tory leader, Ms Badenoch thought it would be a good idea to declare Boris Johnson a “great” Prime Minister and that the Partygate scandal was “overblown”.
In her first major interview since winning the contest to replace Mr Sunak, Ms Badenoch suggested the problem instead was with the Covid fines. During his time in No10, Mr Johnson became the first sitting PM to be sanctioned by police after he was found to have breached his own Covid rules. Despite being among dozens who resigned from his government in July 2022, Ms Badenoch told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “I thought he was a great Prime Minister.
“But there were some serious issues which were not being resolved and I think that during that tenure the public thought that we were not speaking for them or looking out for them, we were in it for ourselves.”
She went on: “Some of those things I think were perception issues, a lot of the stuff that happened around partygate was not why I resigned. I thought that it was overblown. We should not have created fixed penalty notices, for example. That was us not going with our principles.” She added that the public was “not wrong to be upset about partygate”, but said : “The problem was that we should not have criminalised everyday activities the way that we did.”
At the time, chair of the Labour Party Ellie Reeves said: “Listening to Kemi Badenoch dismiss Partygate as ‘overblown’ will add insult to injury for families across Britain who followed the rules, missing loved one’s deaths and family funerals, whilst her colleagues partied in Downing Street.”
2. Misleading attack at PMQs
At the start of November Kemi Badenoch used her first PMQs session to launch a misleading attack on the Government over defence spending.
The new Tory leader told MPs there was nothing in the October Budget on defence spending. In fact Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an additional £2.9billion for the Ministry of Defence and said the Government would “set a path” to spending 2.5% of GDP on defending the country.
Ms Badenoch told the PM: “His Chancellor’s Budget did not even mention defence. The Chancellor’s budget last week was a copy and paste of Bidenomics. It turns out that a high spending, high borrowing, high inflation approach is less popular than she may have thought.”
The PM shot back: “The one thing I learned as leader of the opposition it is a good idea to listen to what the Government is actually saying. I think she said defence wasn’t mentioned in the Budget. It was seven days ago and it is absolutely clear and central to the Budget.” He said that the Government is committed to bringing defence spending to 2.5% – and pointed out that the last time this was achieved was under the last Labour government.
3. Sandwich
In December Kemi Badenoch triggered a bizarre row after launching an attack on sandwiches – and dismissing them as not “real food”. It caused Keir Starmer to issue a defence of sandwiches as a “great British institution”.
In a magazine interview, she said “lunch is for wimps” before ranting: “I don’t think sandwiches are a real food, it’s what you have for breakfast.” Describing her daily routine, Ms Badenoch said: “What’s a lunch break? Lunch is for wimps. I have food brought in and I work and eat at the same time.” She added that she “will not touch bread if it’s moist”. And in another weird turn, she revealed that she sometimes has a steak brought to her as she works.
No10 was having none of it. The PM’s official spokesman said at the time: “I think he was surprised to hear that the leader of the Opposition has a steak brought in for lunch. The Prime Minister is quite happy with a sandwich lunch.” He added that the PM “enjoys a tuna sandwich and occasionally a cheese toastie”.
Ms Badenoch’s rant was a far cry from her predecessor’s equally odd moment, in which Mr Sunak claimed his favourite meal is “sandwiches” in a cringe-worthy appearance on ITV’s This Morning in July.
4. Criticism of PM backfires
In another wobbly PMQs moment in November, Ms Badenoch appeared to read from her pre-prepared lines as she attacked the government’s “cruel family farms tax” over a changes in October’s Budget.
But it landed her in trouble when moments after she attempted to attack Mr Starmer on his “scripted lines”. It caused a severe mocking from the PM, who drew loud laughter from the Labour benches.
He responded sharply: “I’m happy to help the leader of the opposition. If she’s going to complain about scripted answers, it’s probably best not to read that from a script.
“I’m glad she’s raised farmers. Because the budget last week put £5billion over the next two years into farming. That’s the single biggest increase, unlike the £300million which was underspent under the last government. But when it comes to inheritance, the vast vast majority of farmers will be unaffected, as she well knows; as they well know.”
5. Flat-rate tax is an attractive idea
In December Ms Badenoch came under fire after suggesting millionaires should pay the same rate of tax as the poor. The Tory leader faced comparisons to Liz Truss after saying a flat tax rate is a “very attractive” idea. She made the comments at a theatre that was ironically showing a pantomime of Robin Hood – the heroic character known for helping the poor.
Ms Badenoch said the country couldn’t afford to introduce a flat rate of tax at the moment and that the cost of welfare, such as benefits, in the country needs to be “turned around” to do so. The comments triggered comparisons to disastrous ex-PM Ms Truss, who tried to push for tax cuts for the rich but crashed the economy with her unfunded promises. At the time in 2022, Ms Truss admitted her plans would disproportionately benefit wealthy people.
Currently British people pay different levels of tax depending on their tax band – which is determined by how much they earn. Critics have warned that introducing a flat rate in the UK would mean low paid earners would face a tax rise, while high earners would face a tax rise. Labour analysis showed that Ms Badenoch’s idea could see low earners facing a £1,200 tax hike, while the highest earners would get a tax cut of more than £5,000.
A Labour spokesman hit back: “Kemi Badenoch needs to come clean about how much she would hike taxes on working people to pay for tax cuts for the super-rich. While Labour protects working people with no tax rises on their payslips, the Tories are bringing out the ghost of Christmas past with these Truss-style tax cuts for millionaires. They haven’t listened and they haven’t learnt.”
6. Row with Nigeria
A row erupted earlier in December between Kemi Badenoch and the Nigerian Vice-President Kashim Shettima, who hit out at the Tory leader for having talked down Nigeria. Ms Badenoch, who was born in the UK but mostly raised in the West African country, previously said “fear was everywhere” during her childhood in Lagos.
Nigerian Vice-President Kashim Shettima suggested Ms Badenoch could “remove the Kemi from her name” if she was not proud of her “nation of origin”. During a speech, he said his government was “proud” of her “in spite of her efforts at denigrating her nation of origin.”
The audience applauded him as he added: “She is entitled to her own opinions; she has even every right to remove the Kemi from her name but that does not underscore the fact that the greatest black nation on earth is the nation called Nigeria.” He compared her comments to Mr Sunak’s pride in his Indian heritage, describing him as “a brilliant young man” who “never denigrated his nation of ancestry”.
Ms Badenoch’s spokesman hit back that she “stands by what she says” and “is not the PR for Nigeria”. “She is the leader of the opposition and she is very proud of her leadership of the opposition in this country,” he said. “She tells the truth. She tells it like it is. She is not going to couch her words.”
7. Fumbling words in PMQs
In another on-edge moment in PMQs, confusion circled the chamber as Ms Badenoch fumbled her words – which ended up making no sense.
Talking about Mr Starmer’s Cop29 trip, Ms Badenoch said: “I welcome the Prime Minister back from his trip to Azerbaijan where he has unilaterally made commitments that will make life more experience (sic) back home.” MPs in the Commons wondered what she was talking about…
As she continued, it became apparent she had meant to say “expensive”. She went on: “He has made life more expensive with his unilateral commitments but speaking of making life more expensive, will the Prime Minister confirm that he will keep the cap on council tax?”
The PM replied: “She talks of the trip to Cop. I’m very proud of the fact that we’re restoring leadership on climate. That will be measured in lower bills, on energy independence and the jobs of the future.” He added: “On the question of councils, she knows what the arrangements are.”
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8. Bizarre agreement with PM
In another weird PMQs moment in November, Ms Badenoch attacked Labour’s economic announcements – including on money for local authorities – before bizarrely agreeing with Mr Starmer’s comeback.
In her rant, the Tory leader called Rachel Reeves a “copy and paste chancellor” and claimed “it is clear they had not thought through the impact of the Budget”. But Mr Starmer hit back and said Labour’s October Budget “does not increase tax on working people” and is putting huge investment into the NHS, schools and housing.
The PM added: “If she’s against those things, she should say so.” In response, Ms Badenoch surprisingly agreed: “I’m not against any of those things, of course not, none of us are against any of those things. But he has confirmed that he does not know what is going on.
“The Prime Minister probably does not realise that on Monday the Ministry for Communities, Local Government and Housing revealed that councils will need to find an additional £2.4 billion in council tax next year. That is a lot more than £600 million. I know that he has been away, but did the Deputy Prime Minister who runs that department make him aware of their £2.4billion black hole?”
Mr Starmer replied: “Let me get this straight, she doesn’t want any of the measures in the Budget, but she wants all the benefits. So the budget management is back after two weeks in office. They’ve learned absolutely nothing. We put forward a Budget which takes the difficult decisions, fixing the £22billion black hole, investing in the future of our country. They say they want all of that, but they don’t know how they’re going to pay for it – same old Tories.”
9. Laughing at MP’s question
In November Ms Badenoch was called out on social media for laughing after an MP criticised her for saying maternity pay is “excessive”.
The new Tory leader came under fire at the Conservative Party conference in September that maternity pay had gone “too far”. She rowed back on her comments after widespread criticism, claiming “of course” she believes in maternity pay. But she maintained that maternity pay – as well as minimum wage – was “overburdening businesses”.
During the PMqs session, Labour MP Lloyd Hatton asked Mr Starmer: “Members have raised their concerns of a range of damaging policies pursued by the Leader of the Opposition. These include voting against critical investment for our NHS, stating maternity pay is excessive and that the minimum wage is a burden, and even backing harmful backing when last in government.” The camera then cut to Ms Badenoch laughing on the opposition benches in the Commons.
Ms Badenoch hit back: “The Prime Minister can plant as many questions as he likes with his backbenchers but at the end of the day I am the one he has to face at the despatch box.”
