Online ‘Ethno-Nationalism’ on Rise in UK, Kemi Badenoch Says

Kemi Badenoch, Conservative party leader, has claimed that there has been a rise in online “ethno-nationalism” in Britain and that she has been the target of “hysterical” personal attacks.

Badenoch declared at the Tory conference in 2023 that Britain was “the best country in the world to be Black”, but on Sunday said she had suffered abuse because of her ethnicity.

Her comments came against a backdrop of a heated political debate on immigration, with rightwing groups participating in protests against the use of hostels to house asylum seekers.

Badenoch, born in Britain to Nigerian parents, told the Sunday Times newspaper that some critics had used racial “tropes” to denounce her leadership of the Conservative party.

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She said that on social media “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’.”

She added: “They will try and use the tropes about black people — that they’re lazy, they’re corrupt or they’re all DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] hires — and it’s something which I find extraordinary because I take everyone at face value.”

Badenoch faces an uphill struggle when MPs return from their summer break on September 1, with her party trailing far behind Reform UK and speculation swirling around her leadership.

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