Badenoch fumes as Farage ally brands her ‘Nigerian scammer’

British Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, has condemned what she described as racist attacks against her after a former aide to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage labelled her a “Nigerian scammer”.

Badenoch accused politicians associated with Reform UK of exploiting her Nigerian heritage for political gain, insisting that the attacks would not win them public support.

She made the remarks during an interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Thursday, following a series of social media posts by Raheem Kassam, a former senior aide to Farage and former editor-in-chief of Breitbart News.

Kassam described Badenoch as an “unrelenting scammer” and accused her of using her Nigerian background to advance her political 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!”

Responding to the remarks, Badenoch said: “I think it just shows the sort of people they are.”

She accused Reform politicians of focusing more on personal attacks than offering policies to address the concerns of ordinary Britons.

“I think they think that maybe using my race is a way for them to improve their standing,” she said.

“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,” Badenoch added.

The controversy also drew attention to the response of Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman, who declined to describe Kassam’s comments as racist when questioned during an ITV interview.

Jenrick said the remarks could be unpleasant or rude but argued that he was not responsible for policing every social media post by people who might support the party.

“It’s not my place to police everybody’s tweets who may or may not be a supporter of Reform,” he said.

Jenrick also referred to a separate controversy over Badenoch’s account of receiving an offer from Stanford University at the age of 16 to undertake a pre-medical course. Badenoch has maintained that she received the offer but said she no longer had the relevant documents.

Farage also rejected suggestions that Kassam’s comments were racist. Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he argued that referring to someone’s upbringing in Nigeria was not racist.

He later acknowledged that the remarks were “over the top” but said he did not believe they were intentionally racist.

Reacting to Jenrick’s refusal to condemn the comments, a Labour Party spokesman said challenging racism should not be viewed through the lens of party politics, describing it as a matter of “basic decency”.

The dispute comes amid growing political rivalry between Badenoch’s Conservatives and Reform UK, which has sought to attract voters who previously supported the Conservative Party.

Badenoch, who was born in London and spent part of her childhood in Nigeria, became Conservative Party leader in November 2024.

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