“There’s a certain cadre of people who can’t cope with the fact that I won this,” says Badenoch on rising racist abuse.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch says she has faced increased racist abuse since becoming the first Black woman to lead the party. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Badenoch described a surge of personal attacks online and from a few MPs, calling the hostility “Kemi derangement syndrome.”
She noted “a lot of ethno-nationalism creeping up” and criticism questioning her achievements due to race. Despite the abuse, she dismissed rumours of a leadership challenge as “wishful thinking”, adding that some politicians treat politics as a game.
“The lives of people in this country aren’t a game,” she said. Badenoch, who once called Britain “the best place in the world to be Black,” delivers her first conference speech this week.