Badenoch Who Denigrated Shettima, Northern Nigeria Now Fumes As Farage Ally Calls Her Nigerian Scammer

British Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, who once declared “I have nothing in common with Northern Nigeria” and attacked Vice President Kashim Shettima, is now crying racism after a Nigel Farage ally branded her a “Nigerian scammer.”

Badenoch on Thursday condemned Raheem Kassam, former senior aide to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and ex-editor-in-chief of Breitbart News, who wrote on social media: “How are people still falling for this Nigerian scammer? Don’t give her your credit card number and bank account details!”

Kassam had also described her as an “unrelenting scammer” who uses her Nigerian background to advance her political career.

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Badenoch fumed: “I think it just shows the sort of people they are. 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.”

Reform UK Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick declined to call Kassam’s comments racist, saying “It’s not my place to police everybody’s tweets who may or may not be a supporter of Reform.”

Farage himself told BBC Breakfast that referring to someone’s upbringing in Nigeria was not racist, though he later admitted the remarks were “over the top.” Labour described Jenrick’s refusal as lacking “basic decency.”

But the outrage comes barely two years after Badenoch herself denigrated Nigeria’s North.

In December 2024, in an interview with The Spectator, Badenoch said: “I find it interesting that everybody defines me as being Nigerian. I identify less with the country than with the specific ethnicity. I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, the Boko Haram where Islamism is. Being Yoruba is my true identity, and I refuse to be lumped with northern people of Nigeria, who ‘were our ethnic enemies,’ all in the name of being called a Nigerian.” [Yoruba]

The comments provoked a furious response from Vice President Shettima, who slammed her for denigrating Nigeria and urged her to drop her Nigerian name if she was ashamed of it.

Badenoch’s spokesperson at the time doubled down, defending her right to speak about her experience.

Now, critics say the Tory leader, born in London and spent part of her childhood in Nigeria, has tasted her own medicine — from being the one who described Northern Nigeria as a haven for Islamism and Boko Haram, to being branded a Nigerian scammer by her political rivals.

Badenoch became Conservative leader in November 2024 and is locked in a rivalry with Reform UK for former Tory voters.