Kemi Badenoch

Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth

Gyles Brandreth / Plain Jaine Media

Society & Culture, Unknown

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kemi Badenoch is the Leader of the Conservative Party and the current Leader of the Opposition, a job often described as the toughest in British politics. And in this interview with Gyles, Kemi talks about her upbringing and how it gave her the toughness she needs to survive in the ruthless environment of Westminster. Born in a hospital in Wimbledon in 1980, but brought up and educated mainly in Lagos, Nigeria, Kemi's story is one of contrasts: her family were middle class and affluent, but eventually they lost their money and Kemi was sent to the UK at 16. There she got a job in McDonalds and studied hard at school, working part-time to support herself. Kemi also tells Gyles about her miserable time at federal boarding school in Nigeria, she talks about her favourite foods, her dreams, her grandparents and a moment of joy she remembers from her childhood. This is a chance to get behind the politics to the origin story of one of the UK's most prominent and successful politicians.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Rosebud. I'm speaking to you from Westminster within sight of Big Ben. When I arrived in the room, Big Ben was striking. I thought, oh, let's record that. And then I thought, well, let's wait till it rings again. And then my producer said, you've got to wait an hour. We haven't got an hour to wait because our guest is about to come into the room. Well, this is going to be an exceptional rosebud.
0:22.3	Yeah, I'm feeling quite excited because we've been the number one podcast this week.
0:26.3	On a bit of a high, bit of a roll.
0:28.3	Okay, enough of that nonsense.
0:29.7	Cue the music. And welcome to another episode of Rosebud. We've got a politician as a guest this week. No,
0:58.6	don't be put off by that. Politicians are humans too. I know they may not seem it to you, but they are.
1:05.3	They really are. Yes, my guest today is Kemi Betanock, the leader of the opposition, a conservative member of Parliament for Saffron Walden elected in 2017.
1:18.7	Now the leader of the Conservative Party before that, she was in the cabinets of, well, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak.
1:27.0	We're not going to talk about that.
1:28.3	We're going to talk about her early years, her first memories.
1:31.7	That's what Rosebud is all about.
1:34.1	This is coming to you from Westminster.
1:36.6	I'm at Westminster in the office of the leader of the opposition.
1:40.4	There are union flags behind me.
1:42.6	There are glasses of water on the table in front of me,
1:45.6	and coming into the room now is indeed the leader of the opposition,
1:50.3	Kemi Bednock MP.
1:52.4	Cue the music. Kemi, the first question is always the same question, and that is, what is your very first memory?
2:11.6	So, my very first memory, and I actually had to sit down and think about this, because I couldn't
2:17.7	remember what my first memory was. But thinking and thinking, my earliest memory was actually my fourth
2:24.4	birthday, which was January 1984. And I remember it because I always wanted to know when my birthday
2:31.8	was. So my dad says, and he came up to me that morning and he said,
	...

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