Sussex University graduate Kemi Badenoch becomes leader of the Conservatives

Sussex University graduate Kemi Badenoch has won the contest to succeed Rishi Sunak as the leader of the Conservative Party.

The 44-year-old completed a masters degree in systems engineering at the university in 2003.

She has said that she became interested in politics while a student on the Falmer campus.

Mrs Badenoch beat Robert Jenrick in the election to become leader of the official opposition in the House of Commons.

She served as a cabinet minister under Mr Sunak and Liz Truss and was one of the many government ministers whose resignations forced Boris Johnson to quit as Prime Minister.

Mrs Badenoch has promised to make significant changes to her party after it lost so many seats in the general election in July.

She said today that the Tories now need to be honest about the fact that “we made mistakes”.

And she said that it was time to reset “our politics” and give the country a “new start” – it was “time to get down to business, time to renew”.

Mrs Badenoch is not the only frontbencher in the Commons to have graduated from Sussex. The Labour cabinet also includes two former Falmer students – Hilary Benn and the Hove and Portslade MP Peter Kyle.