Kemi Badenoch, leader of the British Conservative Party, has condemned what she called racist attacks on her after a former aide to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage referred to her as a “Nigerian scammer.”
Badenoch stated that the attacks, which alluded to her Nigerian heritage, would not succeed and accused Reform politicians of exploiting her race to boost their own political standing.
She made these comments in an interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Thursday, in response to remarks by Raheem Kassam, a former senior aide to Farage, who had posted a series of attacks on her across social media.
Kassam, who formerly held the position of editor-in-chief at Breitbart News, called Badenoch an “unrelenting scammer” and claimed she was using her Nigerian background to further her career.
In another post, he wrote, “How are people still falling for this Nigerian scammer? Don’t give her your credit card number and bank account details!”
In response to the comments, Badenoch said, “I think it just shows the sort of people they are.”
She went on to say that Reform politicians were devoting more time to attacking her than to talking about policies that would improve people’s lives.
“I think they think that maybe using my race is a way for them to improve their standing.
“Britain is not a racist country, and because it’s not a racist country, their racist attacks and using my race as an attack form is not going to work,” she said.
The controversy also prompted criticism of Robert Jenrick, Reform’s Treasury spokesman, for his response, as he declined to condemn Kassam’s remarks.
During an ITV interview, Jenrick was asked whether he thought the comments were racist and said he did not, though he called them potentially unpleasant or rude.
“It’s not my place to police everybody’s tweets, who may or may not be a supporter of Reform,” he said.
Jenrick also brought up a controversy surrounding Badenoch’s claim that she had received an offer from Stanford University at the age of 16 for a pre-medical course. Badenoch has continued to insist that she received the offer, but she said she no longer has the relevant documents.
Farage likewise rejected suggestions that Kassam’s comments were racist, telling BBC Breakfast that referring to someone growing up in Nigeria was not racist. He later conceded that the remarks were “over the top,” but he said he did not think they were intentionally racist.
Responding to Jenrick’s refusal to condemn the comments, a Labour spokesman said that calling out racism was not a matter of party politics but of “basic decency.”
The comments came amid political tensions between Badenoch’s Conservatives and Reform UK, which has tried to attract voters who previously backed the Conservative Party.
Badenoch, who was born in London and grew up partly in Nigeria, has led the Conservative Party since November 2024.
