Kemi Badenoch breaks silence on racism experience as Conservative Party leader

Kemi Badenoch speaks out about the racism she has experienced as the leader of the Conservative Party.

As the first black woman to lead the party, Kemi Badenoch has disclosed the significant racism she has faced, expressing surprise at the level of abuse directed at her. In an interview with The Sunday Times, she noted that she did not expect such animosity after her election, even though she had previously stated that Britain was “the best place in the world to be black.”

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“There’s a certain cadre of people who clearly can’t cope with the fact that I won this and I’m doing it. The level of personal attacks from anonymous people, it’s hysterical. Not even just from MPs. I actually don’t think it’s that many MPs. I think it’s two to three people out of 120. That’s nothing. But online as well. People used to talk about Trump derangement syndrome. I think there’s a Kemi derangement syndrome: ‘How could she possibly have done this?’,” she said.

Badenoch added that social media has amplified racial hostility: “there’s a lot of ethno-nationalism creeping up, lots of stuff about my race and my ethnicity and the tropes around, ‘well, she couldn’t possibly have done this all by herself’.”

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Badenoch who was born in Wimbledon has spent much of her childhood in Nigeria before returning to the UK at 16. She has often downplayed discussions of race and heritage, previously saying she no longer feels Nigerian and has been a vocal critic of anti-racism campaigners and critical race theory.

“I always try to think of every possible explanation before I go to race and racism. I think that is a healthy way to run a society. I remember when I stood up a few years ago and said Britain is not a racist country – ethnic minorities do very well here, it is white working-class boys who are actually struggling on a lot of metrics, and I got pilloried for that,” she told The Sunday Times.

“My view is that there are people out there who will say whatever it is, they will throw whatever kind of mud at you and they will hope that it sticks”, Kemi concluded.