Four unusual issues about Kemi Badenoch – hacking, public brawl and Doctor Who feud

Kemi Badenoch has become the new Conservative Party leader, as the four-month race to replace Rishi Sunak came to an end.

The result of the leadership contest was announced this morning (Saturday, November 2) after the members’ ballot closed on Thursday. She beat out former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, having received 53,806 votes to her rival’s 41,388.

It comes after previous front-runner James Cleverly issued a plea for the party to ‘be more normal’ – but the life of the new Leader of the Opposition has been anything but. Here are five things you may not have known about the new Tory top dog.

Website hacking scandal

In 2018, Badenoch admitted she had hacked into a Labour MP’s website by correctly guessing the password a decade earlier. She took to Harriet Harman’s site and claimed the then-Deputy Leader was backing Boris Johnson in the race to become London mayor.

Badenoch apologised and Harman accepted the gesture, but the MP’s actions were reported to the UK’s cyber crime reporting centre, Action Fraud. She told broadcaster Sophy Ridge: “It was a summary offence at the time, the same as a speeding ticket.

“It was actually something quite different from what the law is now. And this was something that happened ten years before I was a member of parliament. It was very amusing at the time. Now that I’m an MP, it’s a lot less amusing.”

Toilet-cleaning job

Badenoch was born in London, but spent her childhood in Lagos, Nigeria, and the US. Aged 16, she returned to her native Wimbledon and lived with her mother’s best friend – with just £100 to her name.

To make ends meet while studying, she got a job at McDonald’s where she said she spent her days cleaning toilets and “flipping burgers.” She was previously mocked by Labour MPs for saying: “I became working class when I was 16 working at McDonald’s.”

Public spat

Badenoch nearly got into a physical fight with a member of the public during a Conservative Party event in 2006. The Tory leader got into an argument at Oxford Town Hall with a woman who slapped her and ran off.

adenoch chased her up some stairs before grabbed her by the hair and pulling her back. She then let her go and the woman left the town hall.

Years after the incident, Badenoch said of the woman: “I never saw her again, thank goodness.”

Doctor Who rival

Earlier this year, Rivals and Doctor Who star David Tennant said Badenoch should “shut up” during a speech at the British LGBT Awards.

Tennant said in his acceptance speech: “If I’m honest I’m a little depressed by the fact that acknowledging that everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else should merit any kind of special award or special mention, because it’s common sense, isn’t it?

“It is human decency. We shouldn’t live in a world where that is worth remarking on. However, until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist any more – I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up – whilst we do live in this world, I am honoured to receive this.”

Badenoch hit back and said: “I will not shut up. I will not be silenced by men who prioritise applause from Stonewall over the safety of women and girls. A rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology he can’t see the optics of attacking the only Black woman in government.”

There are currently two Black female Conservative MPs in government and 10 Black female Labour MPs.