Badenoch condemned for parroting Trump’ in speech

Kemi Badenoch has sparked cross-party condemnation for using a speech to attack diversity policies and climate activism while European leaders thrash out a strategy to deal with the increasingly unstable global landscape and tackle the threat posed by Russia.

- MILLIE COOKE

The Conservative leader was accused of “parroting Donald Trump’s dangerous rhetoric” instead of standing up for national security, after addressing the right-wing Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference in London yesterday.

Ms Badenoch used the speech to brand diversity policies and climate activism “the real poison of left-wing progressivism”, arguing that “Western civilization is in crisis”.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said Ms Badenoch is “competing with Nigel Farage to fawn over Donald Trump”. Labour said it shows the Tories “haven’t listened and they haven’t learned”.

Meanwhile, a source inside the Tory party said the decision to press ahead with the speech, on such a pivotal day for global defence, “sums up how bad they are at basic comms”.