TORY MP Kemi Badenoch is being lined up to replace Gavin Williamson as education secretary, according to reports.
The 41-year-old is understood to be one of Boris Johnson’s number one candidates, but who is she? Here’s all you need to know.
Who is Kemi Badenoch?
Kemi Badenoch is the Conservative MP for Saffron Waldon and the current equalities minister.
She only joined parliament in 2017 when she was handed the safe seat of Saffron Walden in Essex- replacing the outgoing fomer deputy speaker Alan Hazlehurst.
Now the 41-year-old, who also serves in Rishi Sunak’s team at the Treasury, has developed a burgeoning reputation amongst the grassroots for her war on “woke campaigners.”
In included her eyebrow raising comments last year when she criticised “certain people” calling for changes to the history curriculum in British schools in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Tory MP said that some campaigners wanted the history curriculum to be taught “in a way that suggests good people are black people” and “bad people are white people”.
The equalities minister also came under scrutiny over her decision earlier this year to publish journalist Nadine White’s emails on social media in a stream of tweets, accusing her of “creepy and bizarre” behaviour.
Will Kemi Badenoch replace Gavin Williamson?
It has been reported by the Times that Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to draft in Kemi Bandenoch during the next cabinet reshuffle.
It comes as the current Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, has faced criticism over his handling of schooling and exams during the pandemic.
One Tory MP said Mr Williamson is “wetting himself about getting the sack” following a series of high-profile missteps.
They told The Times: “He keeps telling people he knows where the bodies are and the PM is too weak to sack him.”
However, insiders have suggested that the PM is reluctant to dispense with the education secretary until the pandemic is fully over.
