KEMI Badenoch says she was given a machete at boarding school as a teen.
The Tory leader said pupils at Nigeria’s harsh Federal Government Girls College were expected to look after the grounds — and so were all handed a knife and a hoe.
She told Radio Four’s Desert Island Discs: “I was so excited because it was a boarding school and I’d been reading lots of Enid Blyton books.
“I thought it would be like Malory Towers.
“It was not like an Enid Blyton boarding school.
“It was more Lord of the Flies or a borstal.
“It was very much survival of the fittest.”
She added: “All of the girls had a hoe and a machete to cut the grass, because there were no lawn mowers.
“There weren’t any labourers or cleaners. The pupils had to do it.”
After her school days, Ms Badenoch found life in the brutal world of politics relatively easy.
She said: “I joined the Conservative Party in 2005 for the party aspect of it — socialising, drinks, hanging out with other young people.
“And it was amazing because that’s where I met my husband.”
Her chosen discs included Wet Wet Wet’s Love Is All Around and two songs from musical Hamilton.
