So far, the Tory candidate selection has been a predictable process: the regurgitation of old names rather than the recruitment of new talent. But tonight, this changed. Kemi Badenoch, former head of digital at The Spectator, has been selected for Saffron Walden in Essex– a seat with a Tory majority of almost 25,000. I suspect that we’ll soon be hearing a lot more about, and from, Kemi. Originally from Nigeria, she moved here as a teenager, worked her way up in the City and was an associate director at Coutts before she joined us at The Spectator.
She is currently deputy leader of the Tory group at the London Assembly, and is – to put it politely – not a caricature of a Cameron moderniser. She lives in Wimbledon and I thought she might contest Richmond Park, but they recycled Zac Goldsmith instead. She was shortlisted for the Labour-held Hampsted & Kilburn, but lost there.
Tonight she has prevailed in one of the safest Tory seats in the land and defeated the favourite, Stephen Parkinson, an adviser to Theresa May, on the first ballot.
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