Kemi Badenoch: from African immigrant to Essex MP, I’ve lived the ‘British dream’

Our former Spectator colleague Kemi Badenoch gave her maiden speech in the House of Commons earlier on today. It was, in part, a response to the new Corbynista MPs who have been denouncing parliament. Here’s an edited version of what she had to say:-

I am often inexplicably mistaken for a member of the Labour Party. I can’t think why. I’m a Conservative – to all intents and purposes a first-generation immigrant. Born in Wimbledon, yes, but I grew up in Nigeria. I chose to make the United Kingdom my home. Growing up in Nigeria I saw real poverty and experienced it. Going without electricity, doing my homework by candlelight because the state electricity board could not provide power. Fetching water a mile away in heavy, rusty buckets because the nationalised water could not get water to flow from the taps. Unlike many colleagues born after 1980, I was unlucky enough to live under socialist policies.