Timeline of Kemi Badenoch’s first year leading the Conservative Party
Kemi Badenoch is celebrating one year since taking over the leadership of the Conservative Party on Sunday 2 November.
Here, the PA news agency reveals a brief timeline of Ms Badenoch’s leadership of the Conservative Party.
– November 2024
Ms Badenoch won the Conservative leadership contest to replace Rishi Sunak following the party’s general election defeat.
He beat out five other senior Conservatives in the contest: Sir James Cleverly, Dame Priti Patel, Sir Mel Stride, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat.
They have all since gone on to occupy positions in his shadow ministerial team.
– December 2024
Ms Badenoch clashed with Reform UK’s Nigel Farage, claiming his party’s online membership counter provided a fake number and worked automatically.
The reform leader threatened legal action, but this did not happen.
– January 2025
The conservative leader started preparing the party stand with the speech he made at the beginning of the new year.
In it he criticized the Conservatives’ failed promises to reduce immigration and the decision to go ahead with Brexit without a plan. He insisted to the media that he would not make policy announcements immediately, but would gradually build a new political platform by discussing it with Tory members.
The same month Ms Badenoch was accused of joining the “lizard” after criticizing the Government for failing to launch an investigation into a grooming gang in Oldham, Greater Manchester.
Criticism of the decision from tech billionaire Elon Musk caused Home Secretary Jess Phillips to pile on online. Ms Badenoch has faced questions about her own party’s record on the grooming gang scandal.
– May 2025
The Conservatives suffered heavy defeats in the May local elections. Ms Badenoch apologized to her party for the outcome.
Previously, the Conservative Party had warned at the start of its local election campaign that the voting round would be difficult for the party following its general election loss.
– July 2025
Senior Conservative figures have announced they will defect to Reform UK in a major challenge for Ms Badenoch’s leadership. These included former Conservative Party chairman Jake Berry and former Wales secretary David Jones.
– September 2025
High-profile defections to Reform continued to be a headache for the Conservative leader. Sitting Conservative MP Danny Kruger has joined Reform and pledged to help prepare it for government. Other Tory figures to join the party included former culture secretary Nadine Dorries and former health secretary Maria Caulfield.
– October 2025
It was Ms Badenoch’s first Conservative party conference as leader. The event was described as subdued compared to previous Conservative conferences. But it has also resulted in a number of major policy announcements for the Conservatives that set the new leader’s future direction.
These included confirmation that the party would support leaving the European Convention on Human Rights to tackle immigration, following a review led by former justice secretary Lord Wolfson.
Ms Badenoch also made the surprise announcement that the Conservatives would abolish stamp duty, the stamp duty paid by home buyers on the purchase of their main home.
