Badenoch attacks Starmer's 'student politics' on Trump

In the first part of an interview with The Independent, the would-be Conservative leader wades in on the UK-US row

- DAVID MADDOX

Tory leadership frontrunner Kemi Badenoch has launched a blistering attack on Sir Keir Starmer’s “lack of statesmanship” as the transatlantic row between Labour and Donald Trump continued to blow up.

Sir Keir has denied accusations of “election interference” but Ms Badenoch accused him of being a “student politician” whose politics “has not evolved since he was a teen”.

Ms Badenoch was speaking exclusively to The Independent as the Trump campaign filed a legal complaint against Labour. The Trump campaign has cited Sir Keir’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and director of communications Matthew Doyle, who attended the Democratic convention in Chicago.

The complaint also cited a now-deleted LinkedIn post from Sofia Patel, head of operations at the Labour Party, who wrote that “nearly 100” current and former Labour Party staff would be travelling to the US to help elect Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

Ms Badenoch said the row proved that Sir Keir and his foreign secretary David Lammy are unable to act as statesmen on the international stage.

Already, sources in the Trump-Vance campaign have suggested that the intervention could be part of a wider legal action if the Republicans lose to Ms Harris on 5 November. But Ms Badenoch took aim at the prime minister for being personally responsible for the diplomatic fallout.