Kemi Badenoch’s Rise: A Mirror of English Elite Time Immemorial Mindset/ Power, Not English Working-Class Choice or Input.

There is a story suggesting that the rise of politicians like Kemi Badenoch, a Black woman of Nigerian heritage, indicates a progressive shift in British politics. 

But to assume that her ascent reflects a bottom-up transformation driven by working-class Britain is, at best, misguided — and at worst, deliberate rubbish from my perspective, how power in this country actually operates is complicated.

Let’s be clear: the British working class did not appoint Kemi Badenoch as a leader of the Conservative Party, nor could they. 

Leadership contests in the Tory party are decided first by MPs, then by party members — a demographic overwhelmingly older, wealthier, and located in Middle England. 

These are not people representing multicultural, working-class constituencies, but a political class stepped in elite networks, think tanks, and traditional media circles.

Badenoch, like Rishi Sunak before her, enjoys substantial backing from the Conservative establishment: major donors, right-leaning publications (The Telegraph, The Spectator), and the party’s ideological gatekeepers. 

Her image has been carefully curated to fit a particular mold — not to challenge the system, but to reassure it. Her identity is presented, not as resistance, but as reassurance.

To suggest that working-class England is ready — or responsible — for elevating a Black woman to the top of a traditionally right-wing party is idiotic at best, lunacy at worst, this is is simply to ignore uncomfortable truths.

• The British working class is not monolithic, and it would be lazy and unfair to paint all working-class voters as racist. However, there are deep, documented racial prejudices in segments of working-class communities, particularly where economic decline, poor education, and limited diversity have bred resentment and nationalism.

• The hostile environment, anti-immigration rhetoric, and culture war politics that have defined recent Conservative campaigns often play directly into the anxieties of these voters. It would be naive to pretend these same voters are suddenly embracing a multicultural political future.

Kemi Badenoch has not campaigned on her Blackness. On the contrary, she has built her brand by downplaying identity politics, criticizing “woke” discourse, and emphasizing British exceptionalism. This positioning makes her palatable to a base that might otherwise reject a non-white candidate. In this sense, she is not an outlier, but a carefully positioned insider.

Disraeli, Sunak, Badenoch: What Do They Share?

When we examine Disraeli, Sunak, and Badenoch, three non-traditional Tory figures, a pattern emerges:

Name Background Positioning

Benjamin Disraeli Sephardic Jewish, converted Anglican Imperialist, appealed to monarchy and tradition

Rishi Sunak Indian heritage, elite education & finance Pro-business, fiscally conservative, technocratic

Kemi Badenoch Nigerian ancestry, London/ England -born, socially conservative Anti-“woke,” nationalistic, culturally traditional

Despite their diverse origins, all three align with Tory orthodoxy, not against it. They serve to reinforce the system, not dismantle it. Their ascent is not driven by grassroots change, but by the strategic adaptation of elite institutions trying to preserve power in a diversifying society.

Why All Major Parties Still Reflect Whiteness and Power

Look closely: with rare exceptions, all major UK parties have been historically led by white individuals with English-sounding names, molded by Oxbridge, the media, or Westminster. Even when racial or ethnic minorities rise to the top, they often must strip their identity of its political edge in order to gain establishment approval.

Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister not through a general election, but in the political chaos following Truss and Johnson. His rise was elite-managed, not mass-driven. Likewise, if Kemi Badenoch is to lead the Tories into the future, it will not be through a wave of working-class support, but through a carefully calibrated decision by the party elite, hoping to symbolically modernize without structurally changing.

The presence of minority faces in high office may appear like progress, but without structural transformation, it amounts to cosmetic diversity — useful for headlines, but powerless to shift the deeper dynamics of race, class, and power in Britain.

Kemi Badenoch’s ascent is not proof that Britain is overcoming its historical prejudices — it’s proof that the British elite have learned how to manage optics, while continuing to dominate political institutions. 

Working-class Britain remains largely excluded from that decision-making process — not just because of race, but because the system was never designed to listen to them in the first place.

If we want to understand how change really happens, we must stop confusing representation with liberation