Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Minister Badenoch under fire over leaked WhatsApp messages

UK equalities minister has been criticised after leaked messages revealed she claimed not to 'care about colonialism', the Guardian reported.

Kemi Badenoch, who was recently given an additional portfolio in the Foreign Office, reportedly wrote: “I don’t care about colonialism because [I] know what we were doing before colonialism got there. They came in and just made a different bunch of winners and losers. There was never any concept of ‘rights’, so [the] people who lost out were old elites not everyday people.”


The leaked WhatsApp messages were revealed by VICE World News, and were posted on a group chat called Conservative Friends of Nigeria.

Funmi Adebayo, a former member of the WhatsApp group and the founder and chief executive of Olorun, which produces the Black Monologues podcasts, said she leaked the messages following Badenoch’s promotion, the Guardian report added.

Her portfolio now includes a junior ministerial position in the department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Adebayo warned that “dangerous” comments such as Badenoch’s would drive black supporters away from the party and government.

She told the Guardian: “I’m no stranger to sitting opposite people who have completely different opinions to me … But we can connect as Nigerians, and be honest about the fact that colonialism had an impact on Nigeria and that it was awful. It wasn’t as simple as winners and losers; I think it’s such a crass way to respond. Those losers are people who died, and were murdered and raped.”

According to Adebayo, divisive comments like these are forcing people who genuinely wanted to create change to completely walk away from the years of work that they’ve done.

Simukai Chigudu, a professor of African politics at the University of Oxford, described the minister’s comments as ahistorical.

“At its most fundamental level, it doesn’t make any sense. How are we understanding and interpreting rights? Does she have sufficient knowledge of the culture and the languages, and the diverse social and political formations in different regions and groups throughout the continent?," he told the Guardian.

“The other thing is that it’s just not true. An awful lot of work by historians and anthropologists has shown different iterations, forms and concepts of what rights looked like going deep into the African past.”

Hakim Adi, professor of the history of Africa and the African diaspora at the University of Chichester, has said that the minister has a Eurocentric view of Africa.

"She imagines Africans had no conception of rights and the removal of the right to determine their own affairs was of no importance. On the contrary, Africans formulated the first modern conception of human rights. They gave their lives to rid Africa of colonial rule and today still struggle to remove all the vestiges of colonialism and foreign intervention, which remain a blight on the continent," Adi said. 

More For You

Liz Kendall

Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall will outline welfare reforms in a green paper next week, followed by chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement on 26 March.

Ministers may drop plan to freeze disability benefits: Report

MINISTERS are considering dropping plans to freeze Personal Independence Payments (PIP) for a year, according to a report.

Initial proposals suggested PIP would not rise in line with inflation, but strong opposition from Labour MPs has prompted a review.

Keep ReadingShow less
BBC settles age and sex discrimination case
BBC headquarters in Central London.
Getty Images

BBC settles age and sex discrimination case

THE BBC on Friday (14) said it had settled a case with four female journalists who claimed they lost their jobs because of their sex and age.

Martine Croxall, Annita McVeigh, Karin Giannone and Kasia Madera, who have all presented on the BBC's television channels, claimed they lost their jobs following a "rigged" recruitment exercise.

Keep ReadingShow less
Indian student in US self-deports after visa revocation

In this screenshot from a video posted by @Sec_Noem via X on March 14, 2025, Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen who participated in pro-Palestinian protests at United State’s Columbia University, leaves the country after her visa was revoked by the Department of State. (@Sec_Noem via PTI Photo)

Indian student in US self-deports after visa revocation

AN INDIAN student at Columbia University, whose visa was revoked for allegedly supporting Hamas, has self-deported, says the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen, came to the US on an F-1 student visa as a doctoral student in Urban Planning at Columbia University, and her visa was revoked on March 5.

Keep ReadingShow less
'Companies with diverse leadership are better positioned for growth'

From LtoR- Lord Karan Bilimoria, Sir Trevor Phillips, Seema Malhotra MP, David Tyler and Nathan Coe

'Companies with diverse leadership are better positioned for growth'

COMPANIES with diverse leadership are better positioned for sustainable growth, improved decision-making, and will connect better with multicultural markets, equalities minister Seema Malhotra has said.

She added that the government will soon launch a public consultation on their approach to mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting.

Keep ReadingShow less
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar with  Wang Yi (right)

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar with Wang Yi (right)

S Jaishankar: ‘Delhi’s global interests shape its regional ties'

INDIA today sees itself as a global power or, at least, a country with global interests, which is why Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has spoken of its equation with Russia, China and notably the Middle East.

India’s external affairs minister was in conversation last Wednesday (5) in London with Bronwen Maddox, director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House.

Keep ReadingShow less