"Sunshine Or Storm": Kemi Badenoch Asks Tories To Take A Punt On A Straight-Talking Poker Player

A divisive figure who is well-liked by the Tory party membership, there is more to Kemi Badenoch than meets the eye.

From wanting popular rap music at her leadership launch to poker playing in her spare time, many still see her as the candidate to beat.

Olukemi Adegoke, 44, was born in Wimbledon and spent her childhood in Lagos, Nigeria, alongside time in the US where her mother was lecturing.

The eldest of three, she grew up wanting to be a doctor like her parents: her father Femi, a GP with his own clinic, and mother Feyi, a professor of physiology at the University of Lagos’ College of Medicine. As a schoolchild, she would sometimes have to take her own chair to class. The hard work paid off, and at 16 her SAT scores won her a partial pre-med scholarship to Stanford, but her parents couldn’t afford the place.

Kemi was born in London after her mother travelled to the UK for private medical treatment. But after time in Lagos, with £100 in her pocket and her “golden ticket” British passport, Badenoch arrived back in London aged 16 to study part-time A-levels, paying her way by working at McDonald’s, among other jobs.

Having studied computer engineering at the University of Sussex, Badenoch initially worked in IT, before studying part-time at Birkbeck, University of London and gaining a law degree.

She admitted to “a foolish prank” when, aged 28, she hacked and defaced Harriet Harman’s website, posting a hoax blogpost claiming the then Labour minister for women and equalities was supporting Boris Johnson in the London mayoral race.

Badenoch was a director at The Spectator magazine and then an associate director at Coutts. She later became a member of the London Assembly and was economic spokesperson for the Greater London