Kemi Badenoch has revealed seeing a man beaten to death in front of her when she was a schoolgirl in what she called “jungle justice”.
The incident happened when a car she was travelling in with her mother in her family's native Nigeria was attacked in a traffic jam, the Conservative leader told The Independent.
A thief who tried to steal a watch worn by a friend of her mother's was grabbed by a mob and “literally beaten to death”.
Badenoch said that during her childhood in Nigeria, such events were “common”. They included “armed robbery, hearing next-door neighbours being attacked, endless burglaries, cars being stolen, lynch mobs”.
Her family referred to it as “jungle justice”, she said in an interview with Independent Editor in Chief Geordie Greig.
In the interview for The Talk Show, Badenoch said she had never experienced racism in Britain. She had been called 'the "N" word' - but only by other black people and not in a “hostile” manner.
And she joked she regretted not being able to drink more alcohol owing to the discipline required to be Tory leader - and the need to “look good.”
Badenoch was born in the UK to Nigerian parents in 1980 but spent her childhood in Nigeria, returning to Britain when she was 16.
Recalling seeing violence and dead bodies “multiple times” in Nigeria, she said: “There was one occasion when I was very young, about eight or nine, in a car, and traffic jam.
“Windows wound down in a car with a driver, my mother and my mother's friend. The hand snatch goes into the car and snatches the jewellery that my mum's friend is wearing. It was by a street market... someone immediately shouts, ‘Thief!’
“A mob arises from nowhere, and this person is literally... we can't move because it's a traffic jam. And this person is beaten to death, and it's horrible. Windows are wound up, and it's all chaos. It was scary, but not unusual.
“Jungle justice, that's the phrase that my family refer to it as.”
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The term is in common use in Africa. Badenoch explained: “The mob takes over. Someone shouts thief, and they point, and that's basically it. It may be the thief, it may be the wrong person. And it went on. It's absolutely terrifying.”
She had also seen people dying, victims of so called “necklacing”, whereby a burning tyre is placed around them. It included bodies “skin blackened, tyres around them on the way to school. a swelling from dead bodies... ”.
Badenoch said her experience of violence in Africa had shaped her political approach to UK immigration.
“I understand that desire to just be in a place where if you didn't lock your front door, you don't have to worry because nothing's going to happen.
“The reason millions of people from around the world want to move to Europe or the US is often because of security, not feeling safe.”
Defending her call for tougher immigration curbs she said: “People are exploiting the kindness of the United Kingdom.”
She said she had not once been the victim of racism living in the UK.
“Never. That is the honest truth. It's one of the reasons I say that this is an amazing country. This is not a racist country.
“Of course there are racists. There have been people who have said and done things which I would've thought, yes, this is prejudice.
“But my definition of racism is people who would deliberately disadvantage you because of your race, not somebody making an off-colour joke.”
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There were a lot of criminals in Britain: but it did not make Britain a criminal country. The same applied to racism, she argued.
She had a similar relaxed view about the 'N word.'
“Did anyone ever use the N-word to me? No. Never. Only black people - and not in a hostile way. Have I had people who I think may have disliked me because of the colour of my skin? Probably, but I can't prove it because they didn't show it.”
She recalled meeting husband Hamish when she was 29 at a Tory function.
“It was a very old-school, meet-cute. I didn't take to him at the time.”
They were “suspicious of each other” - mainly because both wanted to be Conservative MPs. But she warmed to him.
“He was always there when I was out campaigning. He was the first to get there, the last to leave, eventually we became friends, and the romance developed from there. It was very gradual,” she said.
Hamish proposed to her on “bended knee” on a weekend trip to the Yorkshire countryside in 2011.
“We sat on a bench outside,” she said, adding coyly: “He's probably not gonna forgive me for this. He had a ring and went down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I'm not sure if I gave the best sort of reaction.
“I could see where it was going. I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, this is actually happening!’”
Her response was “a bit understated because I was processing everything that was going on: ‘is he going to do this?’
He did; she said “yes”. “And then we went out for lunch! It was amazing.” They married a year later in 2012 and now have three children.
Badenoch said they have a shared bank account, but claimed she gets “the better end of the deal because he earns more than I do... and does more of the household tasks!”
Hamish is “the one on the parents' WhatsApps” and does most of the cooking because she “doesn't have the bandwidth to do all those things” as Opposition leader.
Her “indulgence” is Haribo Tangfastics sweets - but not too many. “That stuff is so bad for you but I can't help it. It's bad for weight as well, I have to be very careful what I eat.”
On the subject of healthy living, Badenoch makes a candid admission few politicians would risk: “I don't drink as much as I would like to. This job makes you need a drink.”
She felt rare common cause with Angela Rayner when the Labour minister owned up to a fondness for Sauvignon Blanc wine. “There was a bit of an understanding there.”
Feminists may cringe, but traditionalist Badenoch does not shy away from saying she strives to look good.
“Looking the part is important. It means being very well turned out. The way you dress often says what you think about the job that you're doing, your standards.”
You can hear Margaret Thatcher saying the same thing in the 1970s. Like Thatcher, Badenoch is a Conservative with a small 'c' as well as a big 'C.
She shops at Marks & Spencer “because you can look good, but don't have to spend lots of money”.
Badenoch is a near obsessive fan of Marvel superhero movies and, unlikely though it may seem, draws inspiration from it in her earthbound day job.
She is drawn by the theme of all Marvel films: “The heroes arc - something terrible happens at the beginning that helps shape the hero. They have a failure after becoming a hero, then a big success, then people recognise them.
“I love that arc.”
Conscious that she may have prematurely cast herself as a Tory superhero she quickly adds she “loves team-ups” and is “not a one man band.”
Her largely anonymous Shadow Cabinet team will be glad to hear it.
But the parallels with the recent arc of the Conservative Party and Badenoch herself are obvious.
Watch the full Talk Show interview at the top of this story or on YouTube here
