The leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has cautioned against accepting immigrants from countries with values that do not align with the UK.
Badenoch, born to Nigerian parents, stated this on Sunday in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
The UK opposition leader has been outspoken about her concerns over the countries immigrants come from and the cultures they bring.
When questioned about her views in light of her background, she argued that allowing large numbers of immigrants could eventually erode British culture.
According to her, “Culture matters more.
“Certainly, in the UK, there is something that people from around the world are coming there to get.
“It is that system, you know, enlightenment values, equality under the law, freedom of speech, you know, freedom of association, women having equal rights, the rule of law, our legal systems, so much of that is what draws people from around the world.
“Some people may not like to hear that, but cultures where there’s child marriage, where homosexuals, gay people are treated criminally and killed. Those are not equal cultures. I will not accept that.”
“Cultures where women are less as citizens, those are not equal cultures, and when we have large numbers of people coming into a country, that does change things.
Many of the cultural practices Badenoch has criticised are, in fact, common in Nigeria.
The UK politician accused immigrants of exploiting the tolerance of the British system to secure citizenship with ease.
“We have people pretending, for instance, to be homosexual so that they can claim asylum, and then they go on to get married and have children. They’re abusing the laws that we have.
“We have people who go through false conversions. The parish priests, they’re very excited ‘Oh, these Muslims want to convert to Christianity.’ They convert so that they can claim asylum and say, ‘If I went back to my country, I can be persecuted.’
“This is exploitation of a system that was not designed for this sort of thing. You have to be honest about that,” she stated.