Doubts are mounting over Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s long-standing claim that she was offered a place to study medicine at Stanford University in the United States at the age of 16.

Badenoch, who has often said she received both an offer and a partial scholarship, has repeated the claim in interviews since 2017. In some accounts, she described it as admission into “pre-med” at Stanford. But US admissions experts and former #Stanford officials insist the scenario she describes would not have been possible.

Stanford does not offer an undergraduate medical degree, nor does it have a dedicated “pre-med” programme. Medicine at the university is a postgraduate course, and undergraduates can choose any major before applying to medical school.

The Guardian UK reports that former admissions officer Jon Reider, who oversaw international applications at Stanford during the period in question, dismissed the claim. He said he would have been responsible for offering #Badenoch a place or scholarship and had no record or memory of it happening. “We would not have admitted a student based on SAT scores alone, nor would we have mailed an invitation to apply,” Reider said, adding that admitting a 16-year-old with only O-levels would have been “very unlikely”.

Other Ivy League admissions experts also rejected the possibility that Stanford would proactively make offers based on exam results alone — not even to child prodigies or royalty.

Badenoch, however, has doubled down, telling reporters on Monday that she remembered “the very day those letters came” from multiple US universities. She acknowledged she no longer has documentation, calling the scrutiny “hearsay” while urging focus on her leadership agenda instead.

The row has now drawn political attention. Labour MP Peter Prinsley has written formally to Badenoch, pressing her to clarify the details. Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Munira Wilson has also warned that Badenoch risks undermining public trust if she does not “come clean”.

Critics argue that questions about honesty and integrity at the highest level of opposition politics cannot be dismissed as a distraction. Supporters of Badenoch insist that the debate is being used to sideline her policy proposals, pointing to her track record in government.

For now, the controversy continues to grow, leaving the Conservative leader under pressure to explain how — or whether — the offer from Stanford University really happened.