Badenoch replaces former prime minister Rishi Sunak and becomes leader of the opposition following the party's crushing election defeat.

Kemi Badenoch has won the race to become the new leader of the UK Conservative Party, promising to return it to its founding principles and win back voters after its worst election defeat in July.

The 44-year-old Badenoch prevailed in a duel with former immigration minister Robert Jenrick and won 57 percent of the party members' votes.

She received 53,806 votes while Jenrick received 41,388 votes from 131,680 eligible voters. The party put voter turnout at 72.8 percent.

Badenoch replaces former prime minister Rishi Sunak and has promised to lead the party through a period of renewal. He said it had turned to the political center by “governing from the left” and needed to return to its traditional ideas.

Badenoch, the first black woman to lead a major political party in the UK, said it was a “tremendous honor” to take the leadership but that “the task ahead is difficult.”

The combative former equalities minister faces the daunting task of reuniting a divided and weakened party that was decisively removed from power in July after 14 years at the helm.

“We have to be honest that we have made mistakes” and “neglected standards,” she said.

“It’s time to get down to business, it’s time to innovate,” she added.

Badenoch was born in London to Nigerian parents and spent her childhood in Lagos. She became an MP in 2017 and made her first bid for Conservative leadership in 2022.

With outspoken views on everything from what she calls identity politics to the value of civil servants, Badenoch attracts both strong admirers and critics.

She will become the official leader of the opposition and will face Labour's Keir Starmer in the House of Commons every Wednesday to ask questions of the traditional prime minister.

With the Labor government off to a rocky start following the party's stunning election victory, some Conservatives are increasingly optimistic they could regain power at the next election, due to take place in 2029.

But some more centrist Conservatives fear that Badenoch could anger not only the more moderate wing of the party, but also some voters who were won over by the centrist Liberal Democrats in the last election.

“The task before us is tough but simple: our first responsibility as His Majesty's loyal opposition is to hold this Labor government to account,” she told party members.

“Our second task is no less important, it is to prepare ourselves for government over the next few years.”