Anti-woke Badenoch to replace Sunak

THE UK's battle-scarred Conservatives on Saturday elected "anti-woke" candidate Kemi Badenoch as its new head, making her the first black leader of a major UK party.

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The combative former equalities minister replaces Rishi Sunak and now faces the daunting task of reuniting a divided and weakened party emphatically ousted from power in July after 14 years in charge.

Badenoch will become the official leader of the opposition and face off against Labour's Keir Starmer in the House of Commons every Wednesday for the traditional Prime Minister's Questions. However, she will be leading a much-reduced cohort of Tory MPs in the chamber following the party's dismal election showing.

Badenoch, born in London to Nigerian parents and raised in Lagos, has called for a return to conservative values, accusing her party of having become increasingly liberal on societal issues such as gender identity.