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Husband who sacrificed his own political dream so she could shine
Jul 27, 2024
In her first attempt to win a parliamentary seat, Kemi's campaign manager was Hamish Badenoch, a Cambridge University-educated banker with political ambitions of his own.
He and Kemi became friends after realising they had been born in the same hospital in Wimbledon a year apart. Because he had a car, he would pick her up for meetings. A relationship developed and they married in 2012.
The couple's primary focus was politics, but they are said to have had an understanding that if one of them made it to the Commons before the other, the partner who was not an MP would continue with their professional career.
When she was elected in 2017, he stepped back.
But each is very much their own person. They had different views about Brexit, for example. She was for it, while he was a Remainer – but it was never an issue likely to cloud their marriage. 'Hamish is half the brains of the operation,' says a friend. 'He is Kemi's chief adviser and acts as a counter-balance to some of her views.'
Another friend explains: 'They met through politics, when they were both young activists, and he's always shared her view of how important her job is. He put her career ahead of his own.
'He is her political confidant as well as her husband.
'She respects his judgment perhaps more than anyone's and realises that what she does is a joint production with him.'
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