“I think a lot of people are getting carried away. […] Let’s keep cool heads”.
Kemi Badenoch has sided with the US Vice President JD Vance over comments he made that one of her own MPs has condemned as “deeply disrespectful”.
In a Fox News interview, Vance argued that the US having an economic stake in Ukraine through a minerals deal is a stronger security guarantee than “20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.
The comments have been widely understood to be a dig at the UK and France, who have pledged to provide troops to a potential peacekeeping mission in Ukraine.
In an awkward interview on GB News while at a farmers’ demo, Badenoch jumped to Vance’s defence, saying “I know JD Vance well. I’ve looked at the comments. I don’t actually think he said that.”
The Conservative leader added: “I think a lot of people are getting carried away. […] Let’s keep cool heads”.
Standing next to a woman in a Union Jack flag coat, who nodded in agreement, Badenoch stated, “America is our closest ally,” adding that she believes that both Donald Trump and JD Vance want peace.
“They’re looking after their national interest, we need to do so as well,” she added.
Badenoch’s own shadow defence secretary, James Cartlidge, condemned Vance.
He tweeted: “Britain and France came to their [the US’s] aid, deploying thousands of personnel to Afghanistan, including my own brother and numerous parliamentary colleagues, past and present. It’s deeply disrespectful to ignore such service and sacrifice.”
Even Nigel Farage said “Vance is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.”
Responding to Badenoch’s comments, Liberal Democrat Defence Spokesperson Helen Maguire MP, a former Captain in the Royal Military Police who served in Iraq, said: “Kemi Badenoch’s first instinct is to jump to the defence of JD Vance, not our own brave service men and women.
“The Conservatives are all over the place. Kemi Badenoch cannot even agree with her own Shadow Defence Secretary when it comes to Vance’s offensive denial of the UK’s military sacrifices.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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