Badenoch congratulates Trump ahead of PMQs debut amid Labour split – UK politics live

Sir Keir Starmer has opened PMQs by congratulating Donald Trump on his “historic election victory”, as well as welcoming new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch. The prime minister said: “As the closest of allies, the UK and the US will continue to work together to protect our shared values of freedom and democracy. “Having had dinner with President Trump just a few weeks ago, I look forward to working with him in the years to come.” Welcoming Kemi Badenoch, who won the Tory leadership race last weekend, Sir Keir said: “May I also welcome the leader of the opposition to her place – my fourth tory leader in four and a half years. But I do look forward to working with her in the interests of the public.” Responding, Ms Badenoch thanked him for his “almost warm welcome”, promising to be a “constructive opposition”.

PMQs is about to get underway with Kemi Badenoch facing off against Keir Starmer for the first time as Tory leader.

You can watch them trading barbs here.

While still bringing you the local political reactions this historic day in the US, we’re going to feed in a bit more of what’s going on in the UK, and with Kemi Badenoch preparing her first face-off against Prime Minister Keir Starmer as Tory leader in PMQs, she is expected to pursue the government over continuing discontent in some corners from Rachel Reeves’ budget recent budget.

One topic that could come up for debate is the change to inheritance tax that will see a 20 per cent levy on farms worth more than £1 million, which has caused an outcry across Britain’s farming industry and been dubbed the “tractor tax”.

“The need to strengthen ties with our neighbours in Europe is now more urgent than ever, as is the importance of ensuring that governments remain true to their word and listen to the voices of the most marginalised in society,” the Welsh nationalist party leader posted on social media platform X.

His input reflects that of London mayor Sadiq Khan, who warned of a regression in women’s rights, as well as Labour MP Emily Thornberry, who said the UK would have to look to country’s with similar values for stability if the Starmer government and a Trump administration could not agree.

Earlier, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey warned of a “dark, dark day for people around the globe“.

New Conversative leader Kemi Badenoch has also congratulated Donald Trump on his election victory.

“The world faces many serious challenges and I look forward to our two countries working together to confront them,” Ms Badenoch posted on X earlier this morning.

Badenoch, who was recently chosen to lead the opposition party months after its electoral defeat, is due to face Prime Minister Keir Starmer in her first PMQs as leader, and we will bring you blow-by-blow coverage of those moments after midday.

Former Conservative MP and podcasters Rory Stewart has taken to social media platform X this morning to express his misery at a Donald Trump victory.

“For the record – I was completely wrong about Kamala Harris. It is heartbreaking that Trump is now the President,” posted Stewart, who cohosts the popular Rest is Politics podcast with former Blair government adviser Alistair Campbell.

While he didn’t elaborate, he recently told an event in Sydney, Australia, Democratic candidate Harris would win comfortably.

Back to BBC 4’s interview with former Labour frontbencher Emily Thornberry, who’s views on Donald Trump were made plain in 2019 when she called the then-US president a racist and predator.

After acknowledging her previous commentary, she said the UK still had to work with the US, and offered a cautionary way forward for the country as British MPs take stock of the election results.

“We need to work with him,” Thornberry acknowledged, adding “we need to look after our interests”.

She said the UK needed to work “multilaterally” with its friends and allies. “I think we also need to stick close to those whose values are simialr to ours,” she said.

“There may well be times when we don’t agree with Donald Trump and we need to stick to our friends.”

Former Labour frontbencher Emily Thornberry has deepened the split in the governing party over Donald Trump’s impending victory by doubling down on previous comments that the former US president is a racist and a predator.

Thornberry, who served as shadow attorney-general until the UK 2024 election, told BBC Radio 4 the foreshadowed US election result was “disappointing”.

“I think that across most of the west it was hoped the result would be Kamala Harris, not least because it would be predictable,” she said. “I think we wake up this morning in an unpredictable world.”

Thornberry said Britain’s relationship with thwe US under a Trump presidency would be “quite challenging” in terms of knowing how to approach the relationship.

In 2019, when she was shadow foreign secretary, Thornberry said during a BBC interview Trump was undeserving of the honour of a scheduled UK state visit.

“He is a sexual predator, he is a racist, and it’s right to say that. And I think we need to think about when is it that our country got so scared. Why can’t we start saying things as they are?” she said at the time.

When her previous comments were put to her on Tuesday morning, Thornberry doubled down. “Yes, well he is,” she said in response to her labelling of him as a predator and a racist.

Sir Conor Burns, former minister of state for trade and for Northern Ireland, has weighed in on Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet.

Ms Badenoch named her full shadow cabinet this morning. But Sir Conor, who served as MP for Bournemouth West between 2010 and 2024, says it “won’t necessarily be a government-in-waiting”.

In a post on X, Sir Conor said: “Anyone watching the rest of the front bench formation @KemiBadenoch is doing and raising any eyebrows should remember: she only has 121 MPs.

“To fill the vacancies 3/4 of them will get jobs. Some are too old, uninterested or unappointable.

“So it won’t necessarily be a Govt-in-waiting. But it doesn’t have to be. It has to be an effective opposition to start with. And above all it has to be a team.”

The Trump camp’s recent accusations of Labour interference in the US election lifted the lid on the deep animosity that the MAGA Republicans have for Starmer, his party and his government.

The fallout had undone months of meticulous diplomacy by Labour preparing for this possible eventuality, which had culminated a few weeks ago with what seemed to be a positive meeting between Starmer and Trump in New York.

But the problem Labour has always faced is that their efforts have been led by a foreign secretary David Lammy who described Trump “a neo-Nazi sociopath”.

Starmer also faces a problem that Britain will no longer be seen as Europe’s bridge to America with a Trump administration in the White House.