Robert Jenrick Refuses To Call Farage Ally's Attack On Kemi Badenoch 'Racist' In Heated Clash

Robert Jenrick has refused to criticise an ally of Nigel Farage for calling Kemi Badenoch a “Nigerian scammer”.

Raheem Kassam, a political activist and former Ukip adviser, is now a high-profile Reform UK supporter.

He questioned on X whether Badenoch was a “walking gaffe or an illegal immigrant”, and warned people not to give her their bank details.

Conservative chairman Kevin Hollinrake then accused him of “launching racist slurs” against the Tory leader on X.

On LBC on Sunday, Goodall asked Reform UK MP Jenrick: “Reform say there is no room for racism inside their party.

“How does that square with the fact Mr Kassam still seems to retain close ties to Mr Farage, while simultaneously launching racist slurs against the Leader of the Opposition?”

Jenrick refused to condemn the remarks, only referring to Kassam as a “random journalist”.

He said: “He has no role in Reform. It’s like me asking you about... well you do actually work with Jon Sopel and Emily Maitlis, but it’s not your responsibility to police what they say. It’s just a journalist.”

Goodall asked: “Do you think it’s racist to call Kemi Badenoch a Nigerian scammer, yes or no?”

Reform’s Treasury spokesperson said: “Well, she [Badenoch] said that she was Nigerian and I presume what he was talking about was  – and I don’t know, I’ve never spoken to him about this...

“I presume what he is referring to here is that she told a big lie and said that she had been offered a scholarship for pre-med at Stanford –”

Goodall asked again: “Is calling Kemi Badenoch a Nigerian scammer racist, yes or no?”

“Firstly, I’m not here to....get Raheem on your show,” Jenrick said.

Goodall cut in: ”Why won’t you just say yes? If someone phoned up now and said she’s a Nigerian scammer...”

Jenrick replied: “Let me ask you now, firstly, why did not you not report the fact that she made up the fact that she had been offered a pre-med scholarship”

He said LBC should be doing an “undercover investigation” into that.

Goodall replied: “You’re good at dissembling, aren’t you, Robert Jenrick? Your party indulges in a lot of ‘whataboutery’.”

”No. I’m not on your show to talk about what a journalist has tweeted,” the MP insisted.

The clash comes after an undercover sting from ITV journalists found Reform councillors and would-be candidates had made a series of highly offensive remarks over the last year.

One activist and aspiring MP told a secret reporter that he was “pretty hardline about Islam” and that asylum seekers should be put in “concentration camps”.

A senior Reform official also accused party leader Farage of “protecting” a Reform mayoral candidate who said former deputy prime minister David Lammy should “go back home to the Caribbean”.

Fellow Reform MP Danny Kruger also refused to condemn Kassam’s remarks when speaking to The Daily T.

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