Experts cast doubt on Badenoch's claim of medical school offer at 16

Doubts have surfaced over Kemi Badenoch's claim to have been offered a place at a prestigious US medical school at 16, with admissions staff being unable to recall the proposal and the university not providing the course in question.

- Jessica Elgot

The Conservative leader has said in multiple interviews that she was offered a place and a partial scholarship to study medicine - sometimes describing it as pre-medicine - at Stanford University in California, one of the most competitive in the US.

However, medicine is only offered to graduates at Stanford and there is no pre-med degree.

When asked for clarification, the Conservatives then said Badenoch had not applied, but insisted she had been offered the place by a number of US universities - including Stanford - on the basis of good exam results in US standardised tests.

But academic and admissions experts have cast doubt on this - saying this was an impossible scenario.

Badenoch moved to Britain from Nigeria at 16. She has spoken of feeling let down and underestimated by UK teachers in her final school years.

Jon Reider, the Stanford admissions officer at the time of Badenoch's application who was responsible for international students and the allocation of bursaries, told the Guardian he would have been responsible for offering Badenoch a place and had not done so. "Although 30 years have passed, I would definitely remember if we had admitted a Nigerian student with any financial aid. The answer is that we did not do so."

Reider said he had admitted a few students based in Africa during that period but not from Nigeria. "I assure you that we would not have admitted a student based on test scores alone, nor would we have mailed an invitation to apply to any overseas students based on test scores," he said.

He added: "O-levels would not have been sufficient, and we would have been very nervous admitting a 16-year-old. She would have had to have an extraordinary record."