by Rachel Ogbu//

Nigerian-British Kemi Badenoch has been speaking openly about the threats she receives as a public servant. The newly elected Conservative Member of Parliament representing Saffron Walden had won 24,991 majority defeating her opponent Sir Alan Haselhurst. This came before Labour MP Diane Abbott on Wednesday said black women in politics suffer a higher level of abuse than their colleagues.

“They don’t look at us as public servants any more, but as punching bags,” she tells The Evening Standards. “They don’t do it to your face, but behind a keyboard. During the campaign, I was told, ‘you better watch out’.” She explains how common threats are. “So many female MPs talked about how they’d been abused. One man said his wife and kids received threats. There’s a new intimidating atmosphere.”

Speaking about female MPs, Kemi Badenoch said she believes in a Theresa May government. “As a female MP, having a female Prime Minister is so important. I don’t want to see her dragged through horrible experiences. It does put women off politics. This is not the time to start making trouble, because it will bring the government down if we’re not united.”

Badenoch was born in Wimbledon and has lived in Britain, Nigeria and the US. She had to support for herself at age 16. She first studied engineering at Sussex University then Law at the University of London. She described her worse experience as being an ethnic majority living in Nigeria and had to leave the country when she was 16 at the time Nigeria was under a military dictatorship and the universities closed.

Badenoch who joined the Conservative Party in 2005 met her husband when she contested for office in 2010. She didn’t get elected till 2015 after Victoria Borwick resigned her seat on the London Assembly and the fourth placed candidate on the list, Suella Fernandes declined to fill the vacancy leaving Badenoch to be declared to be the new Assembly Member.