Badenoch says US is acting in its national interest – and UK must do the same
Kemi Badenoch has said the US is acting in its national interest and the UK also needs to, ahead of Sir Keir Starmer’s meeting with Donald Trump.
The Conservative leader, giving a foreign policy speech in London on Tuesday, told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby the US is “not an authoritarian regime” and shares the same Western values as the UK, including free trade, free enterprise and free speech.
On Monday, the US sided with Russia on two UN resolutions when they declined to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine, and backed a resolution for the conflict’s end that avoided labelling Russia as the aggressor or acknowledging Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Politics latest: UK defence spending to rise to 2.5% of GDP
Ms Badenoch said the second resolution showed the US “acting in its national interests”.
“It is being realistic and we need to be so too,” she said.
“Now, that doesn’t mean we’re going to agree on everything. We disagree with them on that resolution, for example.
“But that is why I want the prime minister to be successful in his talks and find out what the thinking was behind that.”
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Putin hints at potential deals with US
‘Absolutely critical’ Starmer succeeds in DC
Ms Badenoch also said it is “absolutely critical” that Sir Keir succeeds in his talks on ending the war in Ukraine with Mr Trump on Thursday.
However, she did not provide details of exactly what he should succeed in.
Sir Keir is expected to discuss the importance of Ukraine’s independence, European involvement in peace talks and US security guarantees with Mr Trump.
Mr Trump, since becoming president just over a month ago, has called Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator and suggested Kyiv started the war.
He has also sent US officials to negotiate with Russia in Saudi Arabia – but did not invite Ukraine or any European leaders.
The third anniversary of the Ukraine war took place on Monday. Pic: Reuters
Call for Starmer to cut development aid and welfare budget
Ms Badenoch urged Sir Keir to “repurpose” development aid in the short term and look to make welfare savings to fund increased defence spending.
She said 2.5% of GDP on defence is “now no longer sufficient” because any country that “spends more on debt interest than it does on defence, as the UK does today, is destined for weakness”.
“I will back the prime minister in taking these difficult decisions,” she added.
Her call came ahead of the prime minister’s unexpected statement on Tuesday lunchtime, in which he said UK defence spending will rise to 2.5% by 2027, and 3% in the next parliament.
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You can email James, Mark and Martha on trump100@sky.uk
The world has changed and the UK is not ready
Ms Badenoch said the UK must “accept reality” that the world has changed and “we can no longer hide behind vapid statements that were at best ambitious 20 years ago and are now today outright irrelevant”.
“It is time to speak the truth. The world has changed and the UK is not ready, so we must change too,” she said.
She accused the West of not doing enough to support Ukraine as “we were too ineffective, too indecisive and too often behind the curve”.
Because of that, she said: “Putin gained what he needed most, time. We now see the consequences.
“An end to the war is being negotiated while a fifth of Ukrainian territory is under enemy occupation.”
However, she said she was proud of the support her government gave Ukraine in the run-up to Vladimir Putin’s invasion and “in those first crucial weeks and months of the war”.
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Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.
MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.
Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.
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Rachel Reeves’s fiscal dilemma
In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.
“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.
“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.
“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”
Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.
The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.
It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.
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Why was the chancellor crying at PMQs?
Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.
Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”
In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.
“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”
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Reeves is ‘totally’ up for the job
Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.
“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.
“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”
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