Doubts cast on Kemi Badenoch’s claim of US medical school offer

Kemi Badenoch’s claims she was offered a place to study medicine, or pre-medicine, at Stanford have been deemed implausible. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

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 unable to recall the proposal and the university not providing the course.

The Conservative leader has said in 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.