During the Conservative leadership contest, Robert Jenrick was widely criticised by colleagues for saying that he would vote for Trump were he a US citizen, while Badenoch’s reply when asked if she preferred Trump or Kamala Harris was: “I like them both equally.” This was widely interpreted as meaning she disliked them both equally.

Aside from Liz Truss, the weight of commentary from the Tory grandee class was firmly against Trump and for Harris. The super-connected Michael Gove backed Harris as “the lesser of two evils”, while former party leader William Hague described Trump as “a nasty individual” who “must lose” during a radio rant on polling day itself.

This Tory establishment mindset will be recognised by Trump and his key allies as being identical to the snooty hostility exhibited towards him by the US Republican Party establishment before he cleared them out. And Trump himself is surely likely to view his friend Farage as his British equivalent in terms of seeking to reorganise the Right around a national-conservative programme and away from the high liberalism of global free trade and open borders.

Naturally, the Starmer regime will regard Farage’s offer to be a link man to Trump “in the national interest” with suspicion, thinking it far more likely that the Reform leader is seeking to further his own interest and underline his standing with Britain’s most important ally. And yet, needs must.

The requirement to forge effective working relationships quickly is immense. The fate of Ukraine, the US commitment to Nato and the prospect of Trump imposing trade tariffs are all first-order concerns. Securing continued full intelligence-sharing is also a vital British interest, and the Foreign Office will want to bind the Trump administration into continuity of policy towards Israel. Is it worth giving Farage a status uplift in return for beating a similarly disconnected EU to the American top table? There must be a strong case for that.

And there is a potential silver lining to being seen to use Farage as a conduit. Imagine a Trump visit to the UK next year in which both Starmer and Farage were seen to have plenty of time with the President, but the Tories were left out in the cold beyond minimal courtesies.

By appointing Priti Patel as Shadow Foreign Secretary, Badenoch has put in place someone who has not spoken ill of Trump and is far more compatible with his style and policy agenda than her more patrician predecessor Andrew Mitchell would have been. That’s before getting to the last Tory foreign secretary, David Cameron.

But, in general, the current Conservative hierarchy has far better contacts with the disappearing Mitt Romney end of the Republican Party than it does with those riding on the Trump train. It has long been obvious to astute observers of British politics that the “One Nation” strand of Toryism no longer has a substantial constituency of domestic electoral support. That it has also become kryptonite in terms of foreign and diplomatic policy will be another well-deserved blow to its still exaggerated sense of self-esteem.

---

Patrick O’Flynn is a former MEP and political editor of the Daily Express.

oflynnsocial

---