Profile Text
Birth Name: Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke
Place of Birth: Merton, Surrey, England, U.K.
Date of Birth: 2 January, 1980
Ethnicity: Yoruba Nigerian
Kemi Badenoch is a British politician. She has been Leader of the Conservative Party, and thus Leader of the Opposition, since 2 November, 2024. She has also been Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, from 27 July, 2019 to 13 February, 2020, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, from 13 February, 2020 to 16 September, 2021, Minister of State for Equalities, from 14 February, 2020 to 6 July, 2022, Minister of State for Local Government, Faith and Communities, from 16 September, 2021 to 6 July, 2022, Secretary of State for International Trade, from 6 September, 2022 to 7 February, 2023, President of the Board of Trade, from 6 September, 2022 to 5 July, 2024, Minister for Women and Equalities, from 26 October, 2022 to 5 July, 2024, and Secretary of State for Business and Trade, from 7 February, 2023 to 5 July, 2024; as well as, a Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden/North West Essex, since 8 June, 2017.
Kemi was born in Merton, Surrey, England, the daughter of Feyi, a professor of physiology, and Femi Adegoke, a GP, who founded a publishing company in Nigeria, and was a Yoruba activist. Her parents are Yoruba Nigerians. Her mother had traveled to the U.K. for medical treatment, and returned to Nigeria after birth. Kemi was partly raised in Lagos, Nigera, and the U.S., while her mother lectured there. She returned to the U.K. at sixteen.
She is married to Hamish Badenoch, who works for Deutsche Bank, and has also been a politician. The couple has three children. Hamish is white, with roots in Ireland and Scotland. The name Badenoch is Scottish, after Badenoch and Strathspey, an area of Highland Council, in Scotland.
Kemi is a first cousin, once removed, of Nigerian pastor, lawyer, professor, and politician Yemi Osinbajo, who was Vice President of Nigeria, from 29 May, 2015 to 29 May, 2023, and Acting President of Nigeria, from 6 June, 2016 to 19 June, 2016, again, from 19 January, 2017 to 13 March, 2017, and again, from 7 May, 2017 to 19 August, 2017.
Kemi’s maternal grandfather was surnamed Adubifa. He was a Methodist minister in Nigeria.