'Rest in peace, Daddy': Uttlesford MP Kemi Badenoch mourns loss of her father

Uttlesford MP Kemi Badenoch is taking time out from politics following the death of her father.

The Conservative Saffron Walden constituency member, who is minister of state for levelling up communities and minister for equalities, posted news of Femi Adegoke's passing on her social media pages on Tuesday (Feb 1) stating that she was currently on "bereavement leave".

She wrote: "I cried more times in the last five months than I did the 40 years before. He had a brain tumour that took a bit of him away from us each day. It’s been agony coming to terms with what I knew was coming...

"No matter how much I prepared, I still wasn’t ready to let him go," she said.

"I’m grateful for everything he taught me, for the time we had together, for his being such a great dad and for helping me become the woman I am today. Nothing will ever be the same again. Rest in peace, Daddy."

Her words were accompanied by a photo of Kemi as a little girl with her father.

Mrs Badenoch, 42, who is married with three children, was elected to the Saffron Walden constituency – the first woman to do so – in June 2017 following the departure of long-term incumbent Sir Alan Haselhurst. She retained her seat in the December 2019 General Election.

She has previously held roles as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education, and is a former vice-chair of the Conservative Party and former member of the Justice Select Committee.

Prior to her election as an MP, she was a Conservative member of the London Assembly, acting as the GLA Conservatives' spokesperson for the economy.

Mrs Badenoch was born in Wimbledon, south-west London, to Femi and Feyi Adegoke. Her father was a GP and her mother a professor of physiology. During her childhood she lived in America, where her mother lectured, and Lagos in Nigeria.