Kemi Badenoch’s swipe at Nigel Farage over the Chagos Islands has gone down badly in Washington. Farage told US podcaster Benny Johnson he would hand Trump Diego Garcia “in perpetuity” provided he stopped banging on about the Falklands:
“I’d have gone in and said, Right, you know what, mate? Chagos, it’s yours. Diego Garcia, in perpetuity, the most strategic American political or military base in the world, which it is. Outside mainline America, Diego is the most important thing America has for nuclear subs, for long-range bombers, for all of it. I’d have said, right, ‘I’m guaranteeing you that I’m giving up on this surrender. In return, just please stop talking about the Falkland Islands.”
Badenoch called this a humiliation…
“This is careless, loose talk from a man who wants to be responsible for Britain’s national security… It is mad for someone who wants to be Prime Minister to say we should give away one piece of British territory just to stop an American president talking about another.”
The White House has now hit back. Last night an administration official told the Sun’s Harry Cole:
“We are confused by what Kemi Badenoch is saying. We understood Nigel Farage’s comments to mean that we would get perpetual use of the base, which, frankly, we’ve always had… We want the UK to come to its senses on Chagos…”
A second official piled in, accusing anyone saying otherwise of “peddling fake news and undermining the Anglo-American relationship, including, apparently, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch”. Chaos…
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock was asked if Burnham will take Britain back into the EU:
“Yes, sure – his commitment is authentic. He really does understand from the grassroots up why restoring what I think of as normality in our continent is vital for every party economically, politically, culturally, in terms of security, and he’s able to articulate it in language that people can understand. So yeah, he is definitely”.