K emi Badenoch has spoken about seeing a man beaten to death in front of her when she was a schoolgirl in what she called “jungle justice”.

The incident happened when a car she was travelling in with her mother in her family’s native Nigeria was attacked in a traffic jam, the Conservative leader told The Independent .

A thief who tried to steal a watch worn by a friend of her mother was grabbed by a mob and “literally beaten to death”.

Ms Badenoch said that during her childhood in Nigeria, such events were “common”. They included “armed robbery, hearing next-door neighbours being attacked, endless burglaries, cars being stolen, lynch mobs”.

Kemi Badenoch: 'I watched a man being beaten to death in front of me'

Her family referred to it as “jungle justice”, she said in an interview with Independent editor-in-chief Geordie Greig.

In the interview for The Talk Show , Ms Badenoch said she had never experienced racism in Britain.…