Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed her victory, saying “the first Black leader of a Westminster party is a proud moment for our country”.
Badenoch herself has publicly said she prefers not to focus on her race.
Asked at the Conservative Party conference earlier this year how it would feel to become the first Black woman leader of the party, she said: “I am somebody who wants the colour of our skin to be no more significant than the colour of our hair or the colour of our eyes”.
For some Black voters in London, a city which tends to favour the Labour Party and has a Labour mayor, support for Badenoch will depend on what she does now as leader of the Conservatives.
“They (the Conservative Party) are not more approachable because of the fact that they’ve now got a Black person,” said Imani Samuels, a student. “It will just depend on what she’s doing”.
Asked about Badenoch’s comment on her skin colour, Samuels replied: “She should be proud of that, and she should step forward with her Blackness, because to have such a position and to be Black and a woman should be something she’s very proud to say”.
Vaughan Gething became the first Black leader of the Welsh Labour Party earlier this year, but resigned after just four months as the first minister of Wales after a wave of ministerial resignations in protest over his leadership.
Sunak, who is of Indian origin, became Britain’s first prime minister of colour in October 2022 after winning a race to lead the Conservatives that year.
