Call it the “Special Relationship, Brexit-MAGA Edition.” What else should we make of the new Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, who showed up to the Commons with a spirited defense of President Trump? “Perfect and confident” is how the BBC describe Ms Badenoch argues with Sir Keir Starmer over whether the left-wing prime minister and his clique are up to the task of “building on” traditionally close transatlantic ties in Trump’s next term.

Ms Badenoch, congratulating the 47th president-elect, focused on the anti-Trump vitriol of Labor Foreign Secretary David Lammy. Britain’s top diplomat has previously called President Trump a “toupee-wearing tyrant” and a “profound threat to the international order.” He even described Trump as a “sociopath who sympathizes with neo-Nazis.” Did Mr Lammy apologize for the comments, Ms Badenoch asked. If not, would Sir Keir do it now?

The questioning appeared to put Sir Keir on his heels, forcing him, according to the BBC, “to insist that the ‘special relationship’ between the UK and the US remains intact.” Mrs. Badenoch was having none of it. Sir Keir’s approach, she claimed, was: “Discuss, discuss, discuss, discuss, discuss, discuss – he has no plan to develop this special relationship.” What about, for example, the need to increase defense spending to meet Britain’s obligations under the North Atlantic Pact?

Will Sir Keir “live up to the Conservatives’ pledge,” Ms Badenoch asked, “to increase defense spending to 2.5% of national income by 2030?” » While the Prime Minister claimed to support this aim, Ms Badenoch noted that last week’s Labor budget, focused on taxes and spending, according to the BBC account, “did not mention defence”. This belies Sir Keir’s words of support, Ms Badenoch claims, even as he croons “no more important duty” than keeping Britons safe.

As for the Labor budget, Ms Badenoch “went for the jugular”, the BBC said. The plan, which calls for some 40 billion pounds of new taxes and almost 30 billion pounds of new borrowing, would increase government levies to 38.2% of Britain’s economic output by 2030, Reuters said. reported. Ms Badenoch ridiculed him as a “copy and paste of Bidenomics” and asked Sir Keir if, like President Biden, he planned to be a “one-term leader”.

The pugnacity of the new conservative leader marks “a different approach from the last opposition by being a constructive opposition”. This reminds us of our Julie Burchill assessment of Ms Badenoch as “a frank and clear thinker” who “will now take on Sir Keir Starmer, the wittiest waffle iron who has ever led the United Kingdom”. It also underlines the affinities between an independent Britain after Brexit and the American posture under Trump.

After all, the June 2016 Brexit vote in some ways foreshadowed the groundswell that swept Trump into the presidency later that year. The Brexit and MAGA movements reflect patriotic, populist and anti-statist sentiments. The two movements fit together in the same way that the anti-communist and pro-free market policies of President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher helped spark economic and political transformation in both countries in the 1980s.

The arrival here before our election of a group of Labor volunteers to campaign The presence of Vice President Harris in the Swing States is, on the other hand, a symptom of the links between the Democrats and the British left. This effort failed, as demonstrated by America’s electoral rejection of Democrats in the elections. As for Sir Keir, his “popularity rating collapsed more significantly after winning an election than any other prime minister in modern history,” according to the Independent. reports.

The link between Trump’s America and an independent Britain, however, appears to have legs. Ms. Badenoch emerges as a dynamic partner to Trump’s leadership style. Ms Burchill says she talks about “everything that made Britain great – from the Blitz to the Beatles to Brexit”. As Sir Keir hesitates, Ms Burchill suggests that Ms Badenoch could, when the time comes, “in both senses of the word”, become “the next leader of the United Kingdom”.