Kemi Badenoch a desperate attention seeker -UK Prime Minister Starmer

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has attacked Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch, accusing her of seeking relevance and posing as the saviour of Western civilisation.

Badenoch, a British-Nigerian citizen, has recently subjected West Africa to severe criticism at every opportunity.

This development prompted Vice President Kashim Shettima and other federal government officials to push back on the harsh narratives.

Badenoch had challenged Starmer over the hike in defence spending after the PM said the rise amounted to £13.4 billion.

The PM announced the UK will reallocate aid funds to boost military spending to 2.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2027, following President Donald Trump’s demand that all European allies increase their defence contributions.

Badenoch questioned Starmer over the exact amount and whether the Chagos deal would be funded from it. At Prime Minister’s Questions, Badenoch asked whether any of the new funding would be going towards the multi-billion-pound Chagos deal twice.

“She has appointed herself, I think, saviour of the western civilisation in a desperate search for relevance,” the UK Prime Minister added.

Badenoch focused her questions to the prime minister on which figure for the defence rise – his initial £13.4 billion or £6 billion, which Healey said was the increase “in real terms” – was correct.

Keir responded: “If you take the numbers for this financial year and then the numbers for the financial year 2027-28, that’s a £13.4bn increase. That’s the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, which will put us in a position to ensure the security and defence of our country and of Europe.”

Badenoch pressed him again, saying: “The IFS said today that the government is playing silly games with numbers. How does he find this difference in numbers?” Repeating himself, the PM then said they had already been “going through the same question over and over again” at previous PMQs and said “if you ask again I’ll give the same answer again”, to loud cheers from his backbenchers.

Objecting, Badenoch pointed out that “being patronising is not the same as answering the question”.

When Badenoch suggested Sir Keir had listened to her advice on using international aid money for defence, he said: “I’m going to have to let the leader of the opposition down gently… She didn’t feature in my thinking at all. I was so busy over the weekend I didn’t even see her proposal.”

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