New UK Tory leader tries to woo Trumpworld

There’s a new special relationship in town — or so Kemi Badenoch hopes.

Britain’s new opposition leader traveled to Washington, D.C. Wednesday night to try and build fresh links with U.S. Republicans ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House next month.

The Tory leader will meet Republicans on Capitol Hill Thursday as the party prepares to control both chambers of Congress as well as the White House. She is unlikely to meet Trump himself, though her aides did not rule an attempt at a meeting.

Badenoch will attend the International Democracy Union forum, which bills itself as “the Global Alliance of the Center Right” where individuals from global right-wing parties gather to develop contacts and learn from one another. Founder members include former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Speakers this year included ex-Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Badenoch’s Shadow Trade Secretary Andrew Griffith is also on the lineup. The leader of the opposition is the keynote speaker at a dinner Thursday evening where the group’s “Bush-Thatcher Award for Freedom” will be presented.

Badenoch will be eager to forge close ties with Republicans as Trump prepares to take office. Britain’s center-left Labour government — not natural allies of the Make America Great Again crowd — have been on their own charm offensive. Prime Minister Keir Starmer met the president-elect in September and has spoken of the strong transatlantic relationship between the two nations.

However, comments by Foreign Secretary David Lammy calling Trump a “neo-Nazi sympathizing sociopath” in 2018 and “a racist KKK and Nazi sympathizer” may complicate things. Numerous Labour staffers also campaigned for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris,

Badenoch wants to show she is on a stronger footing, having received the endorsement of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – under consideration as Trump’s defense secretary pick should his first choice come unstuck — during the Tory leadership race this fall.

The new Tory leader kicked off her time at the top of the party — booted out of office in this summer’s general election — by urging Starmer to reopen trade talks with the U.S. after a free trade agreement was canned under outgoing President Biden.

While trade secretary, she blamed Biden for Britain’s failure to meet post-Brexit trade targets.