This website uses cookies

We use cookies to improve your experience and to provide us with insight into how people use our website.

To find out more, read our cookie policy.

Kemi Badenoch, Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons and head of the Conservative party, headed out into the countryside on Sunday when visiting the Heythrop point-to-point at Cocklebarrow.

Hours after she had appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs – during which she described herself as “an Essex girl” – Badenoch seemed happy and relaxed among the classic Cotswolds set made famous by author Jilly Cooper, and which descends on one of the best-attended point-to-points of the season.

Looking chilled at Cocklebarrow, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch (Ce)

MP for North West Essex and head of the Tories since November 2024, Badenoch joined meeting president Charlie Brooks and members of the committee when visiting the paddock where she was introduced to huntsman Oliver Dale, clerk of the course Nick Phillips and BHA course inspector Jon Trice-Rolph among others.

She then headed over to the bookmakers where, after some lengthy digesting of the prices, she placed a bet. Whether she backed the odds-on winner, Mumbo Jumbo, was unclear.

Placing a bet, Kemi Badenoch collects her slip from bookie Les Russell (Ce)