Could these be the online comments of young Kemi Badenoch?

The Tory leadership battle is now underway with the traditional first act: to identify a frontrunner and start blowing poison darts. Kemi Badenoch is the frontrunner and famously combative. She’s in her early 40s. So it must stand to reason that she’d have let off steam in a chatroom somewhere, surely?

This is where it gets interesting. In Westminster, a link is being shared over WhatsApp between candidate teams, MPs and general Westminster watchers of ‘Naijablog’ a blog about Nigeria, where a below-the-line commentator by the name of ‘Kemi’ had plenty to say – and plenty bones to pick. The comments are direct, sometimes rude, often confrontational, making off-colour jokes and taking no prisoners. In other words, sounding very much like a certain Kemi Badenoch who was then studying for a postgrad at Birkbeck. Here is a selection of the fruitier comments from the user called ‘Kemi’:

• On Diane Abbott (original blog here).