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Hard to overstate challenges Kemi Badenoch faces as leader of the opposition

Kemi Badenoch might have avoided the cursed 52%-48% ratio that has riven the Conservative party before, but the nevertheless close-run nature of her 56.5% winning margin in the Tory members’ vote shows the scale of the task before her.It is hard to overstate the challenges Rishi Sunak’s replacement faces, even setting aside the much-cited fact that the last new UK leader to take a party directly from an election defeat to government was Margaret Thatcher in 1979.To begin with, as Badenoch acknowledged in her victory speech which came with a warning that Tories must “tell the truth” to win back the trust of the voting public, opposition is just as difficult, especially after so long in government.There is a sense that quite a number of the 121 remaining Conservative MPs are still only just getting used to the sparse opposition benches and limited number of select committee places, plus the more general sense of chill after the beam of publicity and scrutiny has moved away

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From a childhood in Nigeria to Tory leader: the remarkable rise of Kemi Badenoch | Sunder Katwala

Kemi Badenoch’s election as leader of the Conservative party is a strikingly historic political and personal achievement. “To all intents and purposes, I am a first-generation immigrant,” she told the Commons in her 2017 maiden speech.She was born British, as Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke, in a Wimbledon hospital in January 1980, before her parents took her home to Nigeria. Badenoch was among the last to benefit from the birthright citizenship rules which her heroine, Margaret Thatcher, would soon abolish in the 1981 British Nationality Act. She has compared her British passport to the golden ticket that let Charlie Bucket into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory

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Engineer, hacker and Ron DeSantis fan: five things about Kemi Badenoch

Kemi Badenoch is the new Conservative leader, and for many voters she will be something of an unknown quantity, despite having been an MP for several years and a former cabinet minister. Here are five things you might not yet know about her.During the campaign, Badenoch made much of her engineering background, arguing that it allowed her to view problems in an analytical way, unburdened by ideology. She is not wrong to call herself an engineer, but her undergraduate degree and master’s, from the University of Sussex, were in computer systems engineering.She went on to work as a software engineer, before branching out into consultancy and financial services

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Tories warned by watchdog over ‘tax calculator’ that appeared to collect voter data

The Conservative party has been told to improve its data handling by the information watchdog after it released a “tax calculator” that also appeared to be collecting voter data.The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) wrote to the party telling it to take steps to ensure it complies with data protection legislation after a complaint by the Good Law Project (GLP) about privacy safeguards.Rishi Sunak had previously told the House of Commons that all laws were followed when asked about the online tool, which was launched in January, saying the party wanted to help people “find out how much you’ll save thanks to our NI cuts”.However, the GLP said it looked “more like a way for them to capture your data ahead of the election” and argued that it left cookies without consent, had inadequate privacy notices, and did not follow the guidance that the ICO had set out for the use of personal data in political campaigning.The ICO passed the complaint to its investigations team and wrote to the Tories asking the party to improve its practices and to take steps to ensure compliance with data laws

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Rishi Sunak keen to remain MP after jetting-off jibes, insist friends

Rishi Sunak is planning to stay the course in parliament on the backbenches, as friends said the former prime minister was keen to prove a point after multiple jibes about his potential return to California.Sunak has told colleagues that his children were newly settled in school and he did not want to cause any new disruption to his family life for now after the turmoil of the past few years.With a family net worth of about £650m, friends say Sunak has no immediate need to pursue lucrative job opportunities, though he is expected to seek out work on artificial intelligence, one of his key interests.A source said: “Rishi’s a proud Yorkshire MP and he considers it the greatest of privileges to continue to serve his constituents as the MP for Richmond and Northallerton.“The same people who claimed he’d step down after losing to Liz [Truss] in 2022, and then said he would leave the day after the election, are now saying he’ll quit when he steps down as leader – and they are just as wrong now as they were then

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UK politics: Budget’s ‘clean bill of health’ from watchdogs should reassure investors, says Reeves – as it happened

The budget’s “clean bill of health” with fiscal watchdogs should give investors confidence in Labour’s plans, Rachel Reeves has said amid market fluctuations.Asked about post-budget market movements on a visit to Newcastle, the chancellor told broadcasters:I won’t comment on market moves, because markets move all the time.What I am confirming is that the International Monetary Fund has given our budget a clean bill of health and the Office for Budget Responsibility have confirmed that we meet our fiscal rules two years early.That should give confidence to investors that we have a plan to secure our public finances after the instability and chaos of the last few years.”This blog will be closing shortly