‘We need to get our hands dirty!’ Kemi Badenoch calls on Britain to ‘act decisively’ in the ‘age of Donald Trump’

Addressing the audience, Mrs Badenoch said: “The United States is playing by very different rules from what we're used to.

“We are in the age of Donald Trump,” she said, explaining that America’s posture on global defence under him could now be the status quo.

“For decades, the United States has been complaining, at least privately, that Europe is not pulling its weight on defence.

“President Trump may be unorthodox in how he speaks to us, but there are forces at play here that are much larger than his presidency.

“The mirror that he is holding up to Europe that we find so uncomfortable to look in is showing us that, without the United States, we cannot properly defend ourselves,” she warned.

“Many people find President Trump's actions to be anathema. They find his words unstatesmanlike, his treatment of allies needlessly provocative.

“Some of the president's social media posts and comments have dismayed me, too,” Mrs Badenoch assured.

Nevertheless, she stressed that the state of the UK’s defence and Keir Starmer’s rowing with the US leader was putting the “Atlantic Alliance under greater strain every day”.

To that end, the Tory leader insisted that “we must show our allies and our enemies that we are willing to get our hands dirty”.

“That doesn't mean that when President Trump says jump, we ask how high. No, it means acting decisively to protect British interests.”

“I'm not a military expert, but I do understand the nature of power.

“Power does not come from wishful thinking.”

Mrs Badenoch declared: “Power does not come from speeches about values if those values are not defended by hard capability.”

During her speech, the Tory leader also acknowledged that her own party had met her demands when in government.

“I will be honest, the Conservative Party made mistakes in government.

“We did not do enough early enough to rebuild the resilience and readiness that a more dangerous world required.

Mrs Badenoch pledged: “We are under new management.

“I will not repeat those mistakes, but we need Labour and other parties to learn those lessons too,” she said.

Mrs Badenoch's comments echoed those made by Tory Shadow Housing Minister James Cleverly to GB News earlier this week.

“We recognise that we could and indeed should have perhaps spent more on defence,” Sir James said.

Comparing this stance to that of the Labour Government, he claimed: “The difference is we've recognised when we didn't do things right, and we're setting about changing our behaviour.

“Labour has been warned from day one that they need to give certainty over defence. They have chosen to increase the welfare budget rather than invest that money in defence,” the top Tory claimed.