Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch Embraces “Culture Warrior” Label

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has expressed her approval of being labeled a “culture warrior.” In a speech delivered in Washington DC, she remarked that “the left-wing media” intended the criticism as an insult, but she declared, “but I love the title.” She humorously added that her grandfather had told her she was descended from warriors, implying she was “keeping up the tradition.” The term “culture war” is generally used negatively to describe a political conflict between opposing values, frequently focusing on social issues such as gender politics. While in Washington DC, Ms. Badenoch met with Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives. This meeting is part of her efforts to establish connections with senior Republicans in anticipation of Donald Trump’s return to the White House next month. On X, she posted that their discussions included forming alliances for “a centre-right resurgence” across the West. The Conservative leader is not scheduled to meet President-elect Trump during her visit. Ms. Badenoch had previously resisted the “culture warrior” designation, asserting during her successful leadership campaign that she disliked conflict but was prepared to fight to defend Conservative principles. Her comments regarding being a “culture warrior” were made during an address at a dinner hosted by the International Democracy Union, a global alliance of centre-right parties. She articulated her belief in tradition, adding, “if we don’t defend our culture, who will?” She also stated her belief in freedom, encompassing free markets, free speech, free enterprise, freedom of religion, “trusted institutions within the rule of law, and equality under the law, no matter who you are or where you come from.” However, Ms. Badenoch argued that liberalism had “been hacked,” both socially and economically, by politicians on the left. She voiced concern, saying, “I worry that we are losing what made our countries great.” Ms. Badenoch, who became Conservative leader last month, claimed that “opposing ideologies” were gaining control and undermining the culture and institutions that had originally created space for them. She accused the left of employing “oppression narratives” while being “not that interested in ethnic minorities except as a tool to fight their battles against the right.” According to her, anti-racist groups were deciding that all white people were racist and campaigning against “white privilege.” She further added that the environmental movement had been taken over by a “radical green absolutism” concerning net zero. Feminism, she complained, “doesn’t know what a woman is any more.” She urged conservatives to retaliate by advocating for a “muscular liberalism” and curbing “the growth of activist government.” Ms. Badenoch’s firm, “anti-woke” perspectives and direct style have made her popular among Conservative activists. She has characterized left-wing students at Sussex University, where she earned degrees in computer systems and engineering, as the “spoiled, entitled, privileged metropolitan elite-in-training.” As a junior equalities minister under Boris Johnson, she challenged the idea of widespread institutional racism in Britain, stating that any prejudice she experienced came solely from left-wing individuals. She identifies as a gender-critical feminist and has been an outspoken opponent of measures to allow self-certification of transgender identity, notably spearheading the previous government’s blocking of Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill. She has also opposed gender-neutral toilets. At this year’s Tory conference in Birmingham, she garnered attention with her assertion that not all cultures were “equally valid.” Nor has she avoided confrontations with Members of Parliament from her own party, including when she rejected calls to make it illegal to discriminate against people experiencing menopause. Appearing before a Commons committee, she informed the chair, Caroline Nokes, that “loads of people” wanted to use equalities law as “a tool for different personal agendas and interests.”