Kemi Badenoch has suggested that the US has been “realistic” and is acting in its own national interests and the UK needs to act similarly. The Conservative Party leader also said she “wouldn’t be afraid” to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a dictator if it were her heading to the White House for talks with US President Donald Trump this week rather than Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Mr Trump has been demanding that Europe spends more on defence, while the transatlantic approach to the war in Ukraine has come under strain after US interventions such as the US president suggesting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a “dictator”.
Asked whether Mr Trump has become a threat to UK interests, Mrs Badenoch told a think tank event that Washington shares the “same Western values” as Britain. “Let me be clear, the US is not an authoritarian regime,” she said. “It shares those same Western values that we share – free trade, free enterprise, free speech – but what we see it doing is acting in its national interests.
“It is being realistic, and we need to be so too.”. The Prime Minister is flying to America for talks with Mr Trump later this week. It comes as the transatlantic alliance on the war in Ukraine has been put under severe strain by the president’s approach to ending the conflict, opening talks with Mr Putin, branding Mr Zelensky a “dictator” and suggesting Kyiv’s forces were to blame for the war.
Asked what she would say to Mr Trump following his recent comments if it was her heading to Washington this week, Mrs Badenoch said she “wouldn’t be afraid to” say that Mr Putin is a dictator. She described the US as an “ally” but said that being an ally is not just about “telling people what they want to hear”.
“America is an ally, but I’ve been very clear that I disagree with President Trump when he said that President Zelensky was a dictator. Vladimir Putin is a dictator, and I wouldn’t be afraid to say so,” the Tory leader told the Policy Exchange event.
“But I also would be saying things that he and I would agree with, which is that we need to spend more on defence. “And the relationship, even with friends and allies, isn’t about just telling people what they want to hear. “It’s about speaking the truth.”.
