Britain’s Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch kicked off a heated political debate about a lunchtime favorite Thursday after declaring that sandwiches are not “a real food.” Badenoch revealed her deep disdain for the bread-and-filling staple in an interview with the Spectator, in which she declared herself too busy to eat lunch — but conceded she will sometimes “have a steak.” Prime Minister Keir Starmer — who leads a country grappling with a stagnant economy, straining public services and multiple crises abroad — in turn accused Badenoch of talking down a “Great British institution.” The Spectator asked the Tory leader — elected to the head of the U.K. opposition party in November — if she ever took a lunch break. “What’s a lunch break? Lunch is for wimps,” she shot back. “I have food brought in and I work and eat at the same time. There’s no time … Sometimes I will get a steak.” Badenoch added: “I’m not a sandwich person, I don’t think sandwiches are a real food, it’s what you have for breakfast.” The Tory leader went on to confirm that she “will not touch bread if it’s moist.” That prompted a patriotic pushback from Starmer’s official spokesperson. Asked by Westminster’s deadly serious journalists about the prime minister’s views on sandwiches Thursday, the spokesperson said: “I think he was surprised to hear that the leader of the opposition has a steak brought in for lunch. The prime minister is quite happy with a sandwich lunch.” They said the sandwich is a “great British institution” — and cited figures from the British Sandwich Association suggesting the food raises £8 billion a year for the U.K. economy. It’s not the first time sandwiches have dominated British political discourse. Then-Labour Leader Ed Miliband was snapped on the 2015 campaign trail awkwardly eating a bacon sandwich, in a moment that was used by the Conservatives to suggest he was out of touch with ordinary Brits. Liz Truss, Britain’s former prime minister, was also unfavorably compared to a popular sandwich filling during her brief time as prime minister. Starmer “enjoys a tuna sandwich and occasionally a cheese toastie,” his spokesperson said Thursday.

LONDON — Kemi Badenoch’s elevation as leader of Britain’s Conservatives is a historic moment in British politics — but you can expect the Tories to take it in their stride. The 44-year-old is the first Black woman to become a leader of a major U.K. political party, after defeating her opponent Robert Jenrick in a vote of Tory members on Saturday. She follows in the footsteps of a cluster of British Black and Asian Conservative MPs who have served in high office over recent years — including James Cleverly, Suella Braverman, Priti Patel and Sajid Javid.  Rishi Sunak, who lost the July election as Conservative leader, was fond of saying he was proud to be the U.K.’s first British-Asian prime minister — but “prouder that it was not that big a deal.” Badenoch was born in the U.K. and grew up in Nigeria, before returning to London as a teenager to finish her schooling and attend university. In 2023, she called Britain “the best country in the world to be Black” — eliciting applause from right-wing newspapers and a torrent of criticism from progressive pundits. But it is a source of real pride for the Conservatives — dusting themselves off from a major election defeat earlier this year — that they have just chosen their second leader in a row from an ethnic minority and their fourth female leader. The party’s first ethnic minority leader was Benjamin Disraeli, who first served as prime minister back in 1868. Sunder Katwala, director of the British Future think tank, said there was initially “slow progress” of non-white representation in parliament after the election of four Black Labour MPs in 1987. But this was followed by “rapid acceleration” after 2010 — and real progress among Conservatives long pilloried for lack of diversity. Former Tory Prime Minister David Cameron sped up change by backing non-white candidates for winnable seats and by “trying to open up and promote” a different kind of party through his short-lived A-list of top Conservative hopefuls, according to Katwala.  A senior Conservative adviser said: “I’ve always found an instinctive surprise that the Conservative Party has all these ethnic minorities because there’s an assumption by lots of people that ethnic minorities are by definition on the left which I think is a flawed assumption. “There are lots of British second and third generation immigrants who are strongly family oriented, socially conservative, entrepreneurial and business minded who find themselves more aligned with the Conservatives.” MAKING LABOUR HEADS EXPLODE Badenoch’s entry to parliament came seven years after members of Cameron’s A-list won election. She stood for selection in the ultra-safe Tory seat of Saffron Walden in 2017 and was up against two candidates from central casting; an ex-aide of then Prime Minister Theresa May and the daughter of a former Tory MP. Badenoch is the Conservatives’ second consecutive leader from an ethnic minority and their fourth female leader. | Leon Neal/Getty Images In one hustings she got the local members onside by opening: “I’d love to start off by talking about how my family has been here for generations and generations — but I think we all know that’s not true.” The room rippled with laughter as she revealed one of her key political strengths — an ability to disarm and entertain with her sharp, sometimes too sharp, wit. Her strong skepticism of “identity politics” is also seen as an asset against a Labour Party which has often found itself unable or unwilling to confront difficult issues of race and gender in modern Britain. She has often railed against what Tory politicians love to call the “soft bigotry of low expectations” — the idea that Black or ethnic minority people in Britain need special assistance from the state or face systemic racism. Her remarkable journey — from arriving at the age of 16 in Britain with little money to becoming a senior politician — likely informs this view. “Too many of the predominantly left-wing ruling class still see Black people as a homogeneous, monolithic bloc,” she wrote in the Times this month. Last month, she called the idea of reparations for former British colonies “a con” as Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced days of questions about his stance on the issue. One senior Conservative Party organizer said of Badenoch: “There is a part of me that would enjoy the banter of us making Labour’s heads explode by electing a Black female leader while they call us sexists and racists out of the window of their pink minibus.” NOW WHAT? Badenoch’s focus will now switch to how to take on an already unpopular Labour government, which has just brought forward the biggest package of U.K. tax rises in more than 30 years. That doesn’t mean things will be easy for the new Tory leader. Badenoch won the leadership race after a vicious and unpredictable three-month long campaign, which saw her fortunes rise and fall multiple times. She will now be rewarded for her efforts with the office of leader of the opposition — often described as the most difficult job in British politics. “Everyone was talking about Kemi” at September’s Conservative Party conference, said one ally. | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images The Conservative Party holds just 121 seats in parliament, which is the party’s lowest ever tally in its modern history.  After 14 years of exhausting Tory rule, Badenoch’s party is unlikely to get much of a public hearing until closer to the next election. However, her team say she is uniquely placed to buck that trend and grab media attention.  One of her allies said “everyone was talking about Kemi” at last month’s Conservative Party conference and that her ability to generate media heat will be required in the long, hard years of opposition. A senior Tory MP who supported her campaign said Badenoch was a “truly gifted communicator” and the “only candidate who actually wants to work out, from first principles, what the party should stand for.” She has indeed shown a penchant for making news — and Westminster journalists are fascinated by her combative and mercurial style. But the news stories have not always been positive. One reason she was such a talking point at Tory conference was because she appeared to suggest maternity pay had “gone too far” — comments which almost sunk her leadership campaign. Badenoch went on to blame her opponents and the media for twisting her words. A second senior Tory MP, who did not back Badenoch, said she had a certain kind of political “pixie dust,” but that it “could blow off quite quickly if she says something and blows up spectacularly.” “But she does have pixie dust,” they added. Her reputation for getting into public scrapes — a common Westminster joke is that she would cross the road to get into a fight — is something she will have to overcome with her own MPs. She had the support of just 42 out of the party’s 121 MPs in the contest, and many of her non-supporters are put off by her communication style. A campaign official said Badenoch was aware of the need to unify the parliamentary party, but added that “it swings both ways.” “She will reach out, but there’s an onus on them to come together. Everyone needs to get behind her,” they said. “The bickering and infighting in the parliamentary party was maddening for Tory members and it put a lot of people off voting for our party,” they added. “The kicking we got in July [at the election] was in part because we looked like a rabble.” Badenoch’s backer William Hague, who led the Tories after their 1997 kicking at the hands of Labour’s Tony Blair, once said the Tories are “an absolute monarchy.” It is the second part of Hague’s anecdote which might leave the new leader looking over her shoulder, though. That Tory absolute monarchy, he said, is “moderated by regicide.”

LONDON — Kemi Badenoch triumphed in the Conservative leadership election and is now leader of Britain’s official opposition party. Badenoch beat former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick. She inherits the dubious honor of leading Britain’s Tories, who suffered their worst-ever election defeat in July after 14 years in government. They were reduced to just 121 seats in the House of Commons as Labour won a landslide. Badenoch has served in a host of Cabinet roles under previous Tory leaders, and argued during the campaign that the Conservatives needed to rebuild, understand their purpose as a party and rid themselves of incoherency. Politically, Badenoch is on the right and advocates free markets and free speech. She has been unafraid to court controversy throughout her career in frontline politics. She is a fierce critic of the left, but has denied intentionally wading into so-called “culture wars” issues of gender and identity to boost her profile. She attracted criticism during the campaign for the top Tory job with comments claiming maternity pay had “gone too far” and saying minimum wage hampered businesses. Rather than prioritizing a slew of policy announcements, Badenoch has argued that the Conservatives must take advantage of the one upside of being in opposition — time to think. This coming Wednesday, Badenoch will face Keir Starmer for the first time at Prime Minister’s Questions.

LONDON — Tony Blair has some advice for the four contenders currently vying for the leadership of the U.K. Conservative party. The former Labour prime minister who saw off four Tory leaders may not be the obvious source of wisdom for his erstwhile political opponents. But as they reel from their worst ever election defeat in the U.K’s July 4 general election, bruised Conservatives gathering in Birmingham for their first annual conference out of power in 15 years may well be seeking inspiration from wherever they can get it. Having led the Labour Party to three successive election victories between 1997 and 2007, Blair said the Conservatives needed to “unite behind a clear vision” under a new leader, adding: “Whether they do that or not, it’s up to them.” Asked which Tory leadership contender would be best at leading the party, Blair joked: “There’s no point in me condemning the poor candidate I would choose.” Four hopefuls, former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, ex-Home Secretary James Cleverly, former Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugenhadt, who served as security minister in Rishi Sunak’s outgoing administration, are vying for the Tory crown, with the contest decided between the final two on Nov. 2. Blair told Power Play podcast host Anne McElvoy that while Sunak’s defeated government attempted “perfectly sensible things” including on overhauling technology, “the real problem that he had in the end was that the Conservative party just became fundamentally disorderly.” “The most important thing for any political party is you’ve got to have clarity of direction,” Blair added. A NATION OF SHARED VALUES The ex-PM waded into the debate over remarks made by leadership contender Badenoch, who has called for a greater focus on integration for immigrants to the U.K, saying not all arrivals “automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border” as “their feet may be in the U.K, but their heads and hearts are still back in their country of origin.” Pressed on whether he agreed with Badenoch’s criticism of liberal thinking on immigration, Blair suggested his own view was aligned. “It’s correct that people should assimilate into the common values. “So your cultural space is a space rich in diversity where you can pursue your own culture in what you do and the celebrations you have and the ceremonies you have and the faith you have. All of that’s absolutely fine. “But when it comes to basic rules about democracy or, for example in our country now, rules about the role of women or people who are gay being entitled to equality, that’s not up for argument. You integrate with those things and it’s really important because otherwise you end up with the situation where people often say multiculturalism failed. A general view inside the arena during the Conservative Party Conference at Birmingham ICC Arena on September 30, 2024. | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images “No, multiculturalism didn’t fail. There’s not a problem with most communities in the U.K.” Blair also said that both parties had become too focused on ideology and had failed to focus on the electorate’s priorities. FIXATION WITH BREXIT Discussing his late father Leo’s involvement in Conservative politics, Blair said the traditional appeal of the party was that it shunned ideology. Voters “regarded them as having a solidity that meant that you could always turn to them and they would govern … and govern sensibly.” However, the former PM said, in recent years a “fixation” among Tories with the European Union and Brexit “connected to them with a whole lot of other thinking and a bit like parts of the Republican Party in the U.S, they got ideology in a big way.” Referring to his own Labour Party’s tilt to the left under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn in the run up to the 2016 referendum, he went on: “Unfortunately, the Labour party had its own nervous breakdown at the same time. So that’s what left the country in 2016 without leadership when it really needed leadership.” In the wake of riots in England over the summer, Blair warned that the newly elected Labour government under Keir Starmer shared problems facing other mainstream parties in Europe in confronting populists on the far right. “Populists in my experience rarely invent a grievance, but they do exploit grievance. They become adept at riding the anger rather than providing the answer, but the answer of the more conventional politicians is: sort the problem out. Immigration is a real issue. It’s not right wing if you say you want controls on immigration.” Power Play is released Oct. 3.