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Transcript
00:00Well, the limelight, I think, is the one word, the focus.
00:04We finally, four months after the 4th of July and that historic defeat for the Conservative
00:10Party led back then, you'll remember, by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and this suddenly
00:16held election and this huge Labour win, we now have a new Conservative Party leader.
00:24She's 44.
00:25She's married.
00:26She's a mother of three.
00:28She's a British-Nigerian woman and, of course, that is a first to lead the Conservative Party.
00:35Now, she was business secretary in the last Tory government.
00:39She was, up until today, shadow housing secretary.
00:43She will now need to name a team around her.
00:47She will also have the difficult task of trying to unite the Tory Party.
00:51She was born in London, raised in Nigeria.
00:54Her name is Olukemi Olufuntu-Adegoke and she, as you said, became an MP back in 2017
01:03and her married name is Badenoch, one that we're going to hear an awful lot more of.
01:07She's known for her robust views, her no-nonsense style, sometimes putting her foot, she'll
01:12even admit, in her mouth.
01:14Her heroine was Margaret Thatcher.
01:18We'll see what political career Olukemi goes on to do, but she is now after this lengthy
01:24four-month contest, six candidates down, whittled down to two, now the crowned leader
01:31of the Tory Party and Rishi Sunak now steps down absolutely formally as leader of the
01:38opposition.
01:39So, in her maiden speech, she thanked her fellow leadership candidates, thanked Rishi
01:43Sunak, and also very much said that her big task was to hold the Labour-Kistama government
01:49to account.
01:51She said also that the second biggest task was to have a clear plan in time for the next
01:57general election and she said that Prime Minister Kistama was, quote, discovering all too late
02:04the perils of not having a plan.
02:06Yeah, you call that the historic election, Labour winning their first general election
02:10since 2005, the Tories now in opposition.
02:13Benedict, you know, as anyone, there's been a lot of drama in the British politics recently.
02:19Are we going to see something steady for the foreseeable future or is there more drama to come?
02:24Well, I think we can expect more drama in the sense of more infighting and that is where
02:30the task will be huge.
02:32Let's be clear, the two finalists whittled down by the Tory politicians, the Tory MPs,
02:39and then voted now today by the party members, chose two quite right-wing candidates.
02:46So her task will be to unite the Conservative Party, to have a team that can really show
02:53a strong opposition, important for a democracy.
02:56But let's be clear, the Labour Party won that historic vote back in July.
03:01They're in government for five years and so it will be very interesting to see who she
03:08picks in her team, in her shadow team.
03:12We already know that some people have ruled themselves out.
03:16That is the case of the former foreign secretary, James Claverley, who had at one point looked
03:21like he might become the next Tory leader.
03:23He is not.
03:24He has said that he will not be in this new team.
03:26And of course, it will be very interesting to see next Wednesday at the first prime minister's
03:30questions how the current prime minister for the next five years, Keir Starmer, handles
03:37having this new opponent at the dispatch box, Kebi Banodog.
03:41So much more to see about her and what her main policies will be in the months to come.

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