What was claimed
Kemi Badenoch, the new Conservative party leader, was born in Nigeria.
Our verdict
This isn’t the case. She was born in Wimbledon, London in 1980, although then spent much of her childhood in Nigeria, where her parents are from.
New Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch was not born in Nigeria
6 November 2024
Social media posts have been circulating since the result of the Conservative Party leadership contest was announced which incorrectly describe new leader Kemi Badenoch as being “Nigerian born”.
Mrs Badenoch has become the first black woman to lead a major UK political party after it was announced on 2 November she had beaten Robert Jenrick to become Rishi Sunak’s replacement, and opposition leader in the House of Commons.
Following her win, many posts on Facebook described Ms Badenoch as being “Nigerian-born”.
But this is not correct.
Mrs Badenoch was actually born in the UK in 1980, in Wimbledon, London.
Her parents were both Nigerian, and she was raised in Lagos and the US until she returned to the UK aged 16 and studied for her A-levels in south London, attending Phoenix College in Morden.
Inaccurate information about politicians and the political process can spread quickly online and undermine the process of democracy, so it’s important to consider whether what you see on social media is accurate before sharing.
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This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because the new Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch was born in the UK, not Nigeria.