Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has said she no longer identifies as Nigerian and has not renewed her passport since the early 2000s.
Badenoch, who was born in the UK, grew up in both Nigeria and the US. She returned to England aged 16 because of Nigeria's worsening political and economic climate, as well as to continue her education. Speaking on former MP and television presenter Gyles Brandreth's Rosebud podcast, she said she was "Nigerian through ancestry" but "by identity, I'm not really".
Last year, Badenoch faced criticism from Nigeria's vice-president, who said she had "denigrated" the West African country. Badenoch, who previously lived in Lagos, spoke at length about her upbringing on the podcast.
She said: "I know the country very well, I have a lot of family there, and I'm very interested in what happens there.
"But home is where my now family is." On not renewing her passport, she said: "I don't identify with it anymore.
“Most of my life has been in the UK and I've just never felt the need to."
"I'm Nigerian through ancestry, by birth, despite not being born there because of my parents... but by identity, I'm not really." Badenoch said that when she had visited the country when her father died, she had to get a visa, which wasn’t the easiest… "
She said her early experiences in Nigeria shaped her political outlook, including her dislike of socialism. She said: “As a child, I remembered never feeling that I belonged there." She went on saying that she recalled returning to the UK in 1996 and thinking: “this is home."
The Tory leader added: “My parents thought that there was no future for me in their home country."
She said she had not experienced racial prejudice in the UK, adding: "I knew I was going to a place where I would look different to everybody, and I didn't think that it was odd.
"What I found actually quite interesting was that people didn't treat me differently, and it's why I'm so quick to defend the UK whenever there are accusations of racism." At the end of last year, Badenoch was criticised for saying she had grown up in fear and insecurity in Nigeria.
The country's vice-president Kashim Shettima responded by saying that his government was proud of Badenoch "in spite of her efforts at denigrating her nation of origin." A spokesperson for Badenoch rebuffed the criticism.
