Yet whatever their very different backgrounds, the ties between Giorgia Meloni and Rishi Sunak are likely to have grown even closer last weekend when he attended the rightwing Atreju summit in Rome organised by her hardline Brothers of Italy party.
The visit was also a return favour on Sunak's part - Meloni was the only other G7 leader to attend a UK summit on artificial intelligence last month.
Sunak and Meloni have bonded over a shared hardline approach towards immigration through policies that have sometimes pushed the limits of what is legal.
A controversial deal struck between the Italian and Albanian governments is regarded as partly inspired by the UK government's long-running attempts to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
But the mutually beneficial relationship between Sunak and Meloni also reflects an increasing blurring of lines between politicians from Europe's far right and more traditional conservative backgrounds.
Post-Brexit, Sunak has found an ally inside the EU with a shared interest in taking the hardline stance on immigration demanded by his party's power base. For Meloni, an anglophile fond of quoting the British conservative philosopher Roger Scruton in speeches, the alliance helps make her extremist roots seem more distant.
This story is from the December 22, 2023 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the December 22, 2023 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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