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Sunday, August 24, 2025

‘Deranged’ British racists always attacking me for emerging Tory leader: Kemi Badenoch

The Tory leader said her critics are suffering from “Kemi Derangement Syndrome”.

• August 24, 2025
Kemi Badenoch (Credit: UK Guardian)
Kemi Badenoch (Credit: UK Guardian)

Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the UK Conservative Party, has cried out over the constant attacks she suffers on and offline from British racists who are against her being her party’s leader. 

Mrs Badenoch, in an interview with The Times on Sunday, said her critics are suffering from “Kemi Derangement Syndrome.”

“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 is hysterical,” Mrs Badenoch said.

She added, “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.”

The Tory leader said her critics are suffering from “Kemi Derangement Syndrome” like American President Donald Trump, whose critics are labelled to be suffering Trump Derangement Syndrome.

“People used to talk about Trump derangement syndrome. I think there’s a Kemi derangement syndrome: ‘How could she possibly have done this?’,” Mrs Badenoch said.

She added, “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’.”

Mrs Badenoch, who had recently said she stopped identifying as a Nigerian, said although she is of the view that Britain is not a racist country, many continue to attack her.

“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,” Mrs Badenoch said.

“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,” she added.

Mrs Badenoch, 45, who was born in Wimbledon, Southwest London, in 1980, spent 16 years in Nigeria before returning to the UK.

Her lamentation on constant attacks from Brits comes a few weeks after she said she no longer wants to be identified as Nigerian.

The Tory leader has been critical of Nigeria, often lamenting widespread corruption in the country and pushing against Nigerian immigrants coming to get UK citizenship.

In January, she said her push for stringent immigration laws was because she does not want Britain to be like Nigeria, a poor country where terrible governments destroy lives.

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