Badenoch: UK may become Trump’s ‘poodle’ without more defence spending

Kemi Badenoch has warned against Britain becoming a “poodle” to Donald Trump, while promising to rebuild the country’s defences if she became prime minister amid mounting global instability.

The Tory leader also took aim at Reform UK, saying the party is “afraid to speak seriously about hostile states”.

Her comments come amid growing global instability, with Donald Trump threatening to hit the UK and Europe with fresh tariffs over their opposition to his threats to annex Greenland.

Meanwhile, Ms Badenoch’s party has suffered a difficult week after Robert Jenrick defected to Reform.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Ms Badenoch warned Britain must invest in its defences to avoid being seen as weak on the international stage.

“Getting Britain working again means fixing our economy and fixing our country, and that means putting our national interest first and rebuilding our defences.

“Otherwise we will end up being poodles as the US annexes Greenland and we’re slapped with tariffs because we have not shown any strength”, she said.

It comes after Mr Trump used a post on Truth Social to announce that 10 per cent tariffs would come into effect on 1 February on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland.

Those tariffs would increase to 25 per cent on 1 June and would continue until a deal is reached for the US to purchase Greenland, Mr Trump said in the long-winded post in which he warned that China and Russia both want to control Greenland, which he claimed only the US can prevent.

Ms Badenoch also hit out at Mr Jenrick’s “narrow, inward-looking and performative” defection speech, noting that it failed to mention foreign affairs.

Earlier this week, Mr Jenrick used his speech to launch a stunning attack on his former party, saying it had “betrayed its voters and members” and was “in denial – or being dishonest” about its record.

But the Tory leader noted that the speech contained “nothing about Russia’s war in Europe, nothing about China’s growing economic and security penetration and nothing about Iran, North Korea, cyber warfare, AI, or the erosion of the rules-based order”.

“Reform presents itself as insurgent and anti-establishment, yet it displays no serious interest in national security at all.

“It’s not just the fact that their leader in Wales was taking bribes from Russia, but that they are afraid to speak seriously about hostile states, alliances, defence, intelligence, or economic security, and when they aren’t afraid, they don’t know what to say”, she added.

Taking aim at Sir Keir Starmer’s approach to foreign policy, Ms Badenoch said his “failure on national security is different” to that of Reform, “but just as dangerous”.

She said that the PM “speaks in abstractions while allowing Chinese state influence in universities and infrastructure, Chinese intimidation and espionage on British soil and strategic ambiguity on foreign policy, that wills the ends of a rules-based framework but not the means, believing diplomacy alone will win”.

Reform UK’s London candidate condemned over ‘dangerous’ burqa comments

Reform UK’s mayoral candidate for London has been condemned after saying that women who wear the burqa in public should be subject to stop and search.

Laila Cunningham, who will be Reform’s candidate in the capital’s election in 2028, sparked a significant backlash after telling the Standard that she would act to ban the wearing of the religious garment in public.

“It has to be assumed that if you’re hiding your face, you’re hiding it for a criminal reason,” she said, without providing evidence.

Crossbench peer Baroness Shaista Gohia hit out at the Reform candidate, telling the Guardian her comments were “dangerous” and a “dog whistle” to racists.

Baroness Gohir, who is the CEO of the Muslim Women’s Network UK, told the newspaper her charity has been forced to remove signage outside its offices and picture profiles of staff because of a sharp rise in the number of abusive and threatening letters and emails.

She said Ms Cunningham was “sending a message to Muslims that they do not belong” and “emboldening people who already abuse Muslims and influencing those people who are reading this misinformation”.

Reform UK’s leader, Nigel Farage, has previously been accused by more than 20 former school pupils at Dulwich College of making “racist, antisemitic and fascist” remarks as a pupil.

Ms Cunningham, a British-born Muslim and the daughter of first-generation immigrants from Egypt, also told the Standard’s podcast: “If you go to parts of London, it does feel like a Muslim city. The signs are written in a different language. You’ve got burqas being sold in markets.” She said there should be “one civic culture” and it “should be British”.

Asked about the Reform candidate’s comments on LBC on Friday, London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said political figures were “trying to sow seeds of division”.

He added: “Almost without argument, our city is the greatest in the world because of our diversity… Why would you stop somebody practising their religion?

“I mean, how far back do you want to go in terms of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and so forth? These are quintessentially British rights that we’re so proud of.

“There are two types of politicians: those that play on people’s fears, and those that address people’s fears.”

Following Ms Cunningham’s proposals to ban the burqa in public, Sir Sadiq said women should have the “freedom to choose” what to wear.

Afzal Khan, the Labour MP for Manchester Rusholme, told the Guardian that Ms Cunningham’s comments were a “deliberate and cynical ploy”.

He added: “This is all about divisive ideas being pumped into society deliberately for electoral benefits.”

A Reform spokesperson said: “Reform UK believes stop-and-search powers are essential in tackling London’s escalating law and order problem. We also believe police should not have to worry about being accused of being prejudiced when carrying out these duties.”

Ex-Archbishop of Canterbury: Putin is a heretic – his is not a holy mission

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has accused Vladimir Putin of “heresy” after the Russian President claimed his invasion of Ukraine was a “holy mission”.

During a speech to mark Orthodox Christmas earlier this month, Putin called his soldiers “warriors” who were acting “as if at the Lord’s behest” and “defending the fatherland”.

Mr Williams, who served as the Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012, condemned the use of religion to justify the invasion as “disturbing” and said that Putin’s revanchism directly contradicts the message preached by Jesus Christ.

“I’d certainly say we’re talking about heresy,” he told The Independent. “We’re talking about something which undermines a really fundamental aspect of religious belief, of Christian belief, which assumes that we have to defend God by violence.”

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, more than 1,600 theologians and clerics from the Eastern Orthodox Church issued the Volos Declaration, which condemned the “Russian World” ideology as a heretical belief and practice. The belief system grants Russia a special place in the cosmic order and claims the country has a divine right to build the “Holy Rus”: a land chosen by God for the Russian people.

“The idea that death in battle for your country equates to Christian martyrdom seems to be the most bizarre and unjustifiable interpretation you could take,” Mr Williams said.

“There is something really, really disturbing about the systematic, comprehensive rebranding of Christianity as Russian national ideology.”

He referred to statements made by Christ that his kingdom is “not of this world” and “if it were of this world, my servants would fight”.

Mr Williams pointed to the fact that Putin often resists calls to scale back fighting and violence over Christian religious periods, including Christmas and Easter.

He also pointed to the arrest and detention of two young Orthodox seminary members, Denis Popovich and Nikita Ivankovich. They are facing up to 20 years in prison on what critics say are trumped-up charges, according to Public Orthodoxy, a publication that is part of the Orthodox Christian Studies Centre.

Mr Popovich was arrested as he was walking to Sretensky Monastery in Moscow for “petty hooliganism” and “allegedly shouting and using obscene language”. Public Orthodoxy wrote in a newsletter on the anniversary of his arrest: “Anyone who knew this devout young man understood immediately that such behaviour was inconceivable for him”. Six weeks later, the allegations had transformed into terrorism charges.

Asked what he would say to Putin, the theologian said: “The word Christianity contains the name Christ. Which Christ do you think you’re serving? The one of the Gospels or some nationalist goblin?”

In 2024, the Ukrainian parliament outlawed the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church because of its strong support for Russia’s invasion.

The Russian Orthodox Church has been a powerful ally of Putin, giving its blessing to the war and supporting his campaign to uphold what he calls traditional values in Russian society, in contrast to perceived Western decadence.

Mr Williams said that Russia’s use of faith as a justification for war should be an alarm bell for the West. Governments are in denial about the extent to which religion is being “weaponised” to drive human conflict across the world, and religious leaders should step up their condemnation of violence, he suggested.

“In the West, we might think that religion is draining away but it certainly isn’t in other parts of the world,” he said. “To imagine that faith can only be defended by violence is a bit of an insult to faith really. If you’re saying faith can only be strong if I beat the living daylights out of unbelievers, you’re not saying much about the strength of faith, are you?”

Orthodox priests told The Independent last week that Putin is more akin to the “Antichrist” than a messiah, and that he holds “demonic” beliefs antithetical to the faith.

“Seen from a Christian perspective, you don’t use unholy means to pursue a holy mission,” the former Bishop of Leeds, Nick Baines, told The Independent. “When that unholy means involves slaughtering people, invading their country, and telling lies.”

Could Princess Diana’s nieces put an end to William and Harry’s feud?

There’s someone you always look for loitering at the corner of all-family gatherings. One person who makes the chaos of being in the same room as every distant relative feel somewhat less anxiety-inducing and judgmental: the cool cousin. In the ages of infancy, they’re the willing co-conspirator to plead for an early-opening of Christmas presents. Come adolescence, the lookout as you sneak a secret swig of booze from the grown-up’s table.

For Harry and William, the Spencers, unsurprisingly, offer this coalescence of calm and cool in the form of blonde twins Eliza and Amelia; the now 33-year-old nieces of Princess Diana, who are increasingly stepping further into the British social scene spotlight after a childhood spent in South Africa alongside their parents, Charles, 9th Earl Spencer and his first wife, Victoria Lockwood.

While the twins’ older sister, Lady Kitty, has long frequented the pages of society magazine Tatler and been the face of fashion campaigns for both Dolce & Gabbana and Bulgari throughout her twenties, Eliza and Amelia have historically had more private lives. Yet, over the past year, they’ve stepped further to the forefront of public life with a walk down the red carpet at Cannes Film Festival last May, an Aspinall of London brand ambassador announcement in June and a sparkling appearance at the Fashion Awards in December.

The twins first fled London when they were three years old to escape the paparazzi that relentlessly hounded the Spencer family at the height of Princess Diana’s fame. This didn’t stop attention following them to the Southern Hemisphere, with the pair telling Tatler how Diana protected them from paparazzi at Western Cape when they were just small children.

“Obviously, it could have been terrifying for us, being so young and not understanding what was happening,” Eliza recalled. “But she turned it into a game of who could get back to the car first. It was amazing how she protected us in a way that made us feel safe and not frightened,” she added of her “incredibly warm, maternal and loving” aunt who “always made an effort to connect with us as children and had a talent for reading children’s hearts”.

This tale is markedly similar to one recounted by the Duke of Sussex in his 2022 Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan. “My mum did such a good job of trying to protect us,” Harry said. “She took it upon herself to basically confront these people,” he added, as the scene cut to archival footage of Diana on a 1995 ski trip to Switzerland, where paparazzi were circling her family while they were trying to eat. “Please leave,” Diana tells the photographer, who tells her that if he gets one photo, he’ll leave her alone. “No,” she retorts. “We’ve had 15 cameras following us today. As a parent, I want to protect the children. Thank you.”

Two years on from this incident, Princess Diana was dead. “As a child, I realised the enormity of the loss for my father and family,” Eliza said of her family’s grief. “It was only later that I came to understand the significance of the loss of her as a figure in the world… I really had very little idea of how significant she was in the world until I was much older… She stayed with us, just before she passed away… We were very fortunate to have spent that time with her.”

Throughout his life, Harry has felt a deep connection with his mother’s side of his family and never more so since he has been living in “exile” with Meghan in California. In 2024, when Harry reportedly made an under-the-radar return trip to Britain to attend the funeral of the late Lord Robert Fellowes, he allegedly spent time with his Spencer cousins and stayed with their father, Earl Spencer, at Althorp, the Spencer family’s ancestral home near Northampton, while he was visiting from California.

“It is a truly special and beautiful place,” Eliza said of the 13,000-acre family seat. “Having spent the first three years of our lives at Althorp, exploring and discovering it as children, and being part of a long heritage of Spencers that have lived there, it has always felt like another home,” she explained to Tatler. “And, of course, it conjures up memories of family Christmases as children, with our extended family all together.”

As Harry prepares to come to the UK this week, for the start of his High Court legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), he will once again be looking for the support of those left in his inner circle in the UK. His allegations against the newspaper group: the hiring of private investigators to place listening devices inside cars; the “blagging” of private records; and the accessing and recording of private phone conversations, which ANL denied, all fundamentally hinge on privacy. Diana and her tragically turbulent relationship with the media will no doubt be at the forefront of Harry’s mind throughout proceedings. For him, this feels personal.

Eliza and Amelia are two people whom he knows he can depend on. The sisters have acted with the neutrality of Switzerland throughout the entire family feud, offering both brothers a safe space when they needed it. This may be down to their sense of not just family, but perspective too. They didn’t return to live in London until 2021. Amelia married personal trainer Greg Mallett, whom she met while studying corporate communications at the University of Cape Town, in 2023. Meanwhile, Eliza told W magazine this June that “marriage is definitely on the cards” with her entrepreneur partner of nine years, Channing Millerd. They opted to live 15 minutes away from each other in west London’s leafy and affluent Fulham.

“I think the last year or two have been some of the best years we’ve ever had,” Amelia told the publication about her life since choosing to settle in the UK. “Since moving to London, we’ve had the most incredible lives and experiences. Life is full and exciting for us right now.”

Of course, the twins’ return to the UK coincided with a deepening rift between their cousins. By 2021, Harry had given his infamous Oprah interview, alongside his wife, Meghan Markle, in which they alleged an unnamed family member had expressed “concerns” about “how dark” their baby’s skin would be. Royal correspondents reported William was “devastated” by the interview. “We are very much not a racist family,” the Prince of Wales later told Sky News.

The pair have since only reunited a smattering of times: at Philip’s funeral in April 2021, to unveil a statue of Diana at Kensington Palace in July 2021, and to attend the thanksgiving for the Queen’s platinum jubilee in June 2022, where they sat on opposite sides of the cathedral and were reported to have “spent no private time together” to repair their “broken relationship”.

Following Queen Elizabeth II’s death that September, William and Harry walked side by side in a procession, only for Harry to then make damning claims in his 2022 Netflix documentary, saying he was left terrified by having William “scream and shout” at him during an emergency meeting at the Sandringham Estate about his royal duties in 2020.

By 2023, Harry had gone all out and labelled William his “beloved brother” and “archnemesis” in his tell-all book Spare. “There has always been this competition between us, weirdly,” he told ABC News at this time, adding that Diana “would be sad” about the state of his relationship with his older brother. Still, he later conceded to ITV that he would “like to have my brother back” but that William had “shown absolutely no willingness to reconcile”. The pair were last seen together at their father’s coronation in 2023 and reportedly “kept their distance” during Harry’s last visit to the UK this September.

The twins have never shown any sign of taking sides and have publicly displayed support for Prince William, attending the Centrepoint Awards, a youth homelessness charity of which William is a patron, alongside their sister Kitty in October 2024. The twins repeated this show of support for William in November last year, stepping out at the Tusk Awards, a celebration of the conservation and education charity, of which William has also served as a patron since 2005.

“I’m extremely proud of my cousin Prince William,” Kitty told Tatler in an interview alongside Kitty and Eliza this time last year. At the time, the magazine lauded the trio as “funny, frank and charming” and praised their “blonde elegance and can-do attitude”. Could this proactiveness perhaps be enough to bring William and Harry back together?

Experts say that extended family members can provide emotional, social and informational support, helping to alleviate the stressors that contribute to conflict within families. But as speculation grows that William will give Harry the “ultimate snub” during this week’s visit, and again when he travels to the US for the Fifa World Cup this summer, it remains to be seen whether the twins’ can-do charm will be enough to spark the healing that so many close to the Princes hope will one day happen.

UK weather: Chance of snow forecast with temperatures to plummet

Colder temperatures could return again at the end of the month after Storm Goretti battered parts of the UK with wind, snow and heavy rain.

There is an increased chance that conditions will turn colder towards the end of the month, the Met Office said.

Storm Goretti, described as a “multi-hazard event” by the Met Office, brought gusts of almost 100mph and a rare red warning for “dangerous, stormy” winds in the southwest of England earlier this month.

The Met Office has said that as of next week, the UK will “see a battle between Atlantic weather systems attempting to arrive from the west while high pressure and colder conditions attempt to exert some influence from the east”.

Initially, milder Atlantic air is expected to dominate, with cloudy, changeable conditions with showers and average temperatures, the forecaster said.

Then towards the end of the month there is an increased chance that it will turn colder, with the potential for snow.

A spokesperson said: “This aspect of the forecast is still somewhat uncertain but the potential transition to colder weather also increases the chance of snow across parts of the country.”

However, the forecaster has issued no weather warnings this week, and temperatures are predicted to stay between 4C and 11C across the UK. Rainfall is expected, with the wettest weather in western parts of the country, drier in the east.

Thousands of children in northern Scotland missed several days of school last week when wintry showers caused disruption across vast stretches of the country. The Met Office issued yellow snow and ice warnings as freezing temperatures impacted Scotland.

Officials in the West Midlands warned of the “worst snowfall in a decade” as parts of England and Wales saw 15-25cm.

Temperatures have since stabilised, although this week there have been yellow rain and fog warnings across parts of England and Wales.

Fog patches will slowly lift, although eastern areas are likely to remain rather dull. Elsewhere, it will be a day of sunny spells and showers, the showers heaviest and most frequent in the west, though these should ease later. Temperatures near normal.

Variable amounts of cloud, with low cloud and fog becoming extensive across central and eastern parts of England. Thicker cloud will move into the south later, bringing outbreaks of rain.

Cloudy with extensive areas of low cloud and fog, with the fog proving stubborn to clear across eastern England. Elsewhere, outbreaks of rain will become slow-moving across western areas.

A changeable few days ahead, often cloudy with some brighter spells and showery outbreaks of rain. Overnight fog may develop, particularly in the east. Some frost possible in the north.

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Bank of England ‘must plan for a financial crisis triggered by aliens’

The UK must plan for a financial crisis that would be triggered if the US government announces that aliens exist, a former Bank of England expert has said.

Helen McCaw, who served as a senior analyst in financial security at the UK’s central bank, has written to Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England’s governor, urging him to set out contingencies in case the White House ever confirms the existence of alien life, according to The Times.

Ms McCaw, who worked for the Bank of England for 10 years until 2012, said politicians and bankers can no longer afford to dismiss talk of alien life, and warned a declaration of this nature could trigger bank collapses.

She reportedly said: “The United States government appears to be partway through a multi-year process to declassify and disclose information on the existence of a technologically advanced non-human intelligence responsible for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs).”

“If the UAP proves to be of non-human origin, we may have to acknowledge the existence of a power or intelligence greater than any government and with potentially unknown intentions.”

Her warning comes as senior American officials have recently indicated their belief in the possibility of alien life.

In a recent UFO documentary, The Age of Disclosure, 34 US government insiders, including those from the military and intelligence community officials, were spoken to about an “80-year global cover-up of non-human intelligent life and a secret war among major nations to reverse-engineer advanced technology of non-human origin”, according to the film’s description.

The director, Dan Farah, spoke with sources, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, New York Democratic senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and former director of national intelligence James Clapper, to discuss the government’s work with UAP – the formal term for UFOs.

Marco Rubio told the documentary maker: “We’ve had repeated instances of something operating in the airspace over restricted nuclear facilities, and it’s not ours.”

Ms McCaw said: “UAP disclosure is likely to induce ontological shock and provoke psychological responses with material consequences … There might be extreme price volatility in financial markets due to catastrophising or euphoria, and a collapse in confidence if market participants feel uncertain on how to price assets using any of the familiar methods.”

The former Bank of England worker explained there might be a rush towards assets such as gold or other precious metals, and government bonds, which are perceived as “safe”.

Alternatively, she said precious metals might lose their status as perceived safe assets if people speculate that new space-faring technologies will soon increase the supply of precious metals.

Chinese super-embassy could benefit security, ex-MI5 boss says

The proposed new Chinese super-embassy in London could be “advantageous” to national security, the former head of MI5 has said.

It comes as the government faces mounting calls to reject Beijing’s plans for the embassy at Royal Mint Court over security concerns, with a decision on the long-delayed planning application expected this week.

But Lord Evans said having a single, larger building might not be a disadvantage when it comes to Britain’s security.

He told Times Radio: “The current director of MI5 has been very explicit about the scale of the intelligence threat that the Chinese intelligence services pose to Britain and its allies. So, this is an area of real concern.

“There’s a judgment about whether the introduction of this, or the building of this, or the authorisation of this new embassy changes the risk. There are some aspects of it which I would guess are probably advantageous.

“At the moment, there are a variety of Chinese diplomatic premises across London, several buildings. Having a single building might in some ways not be a disadvantage in security terms. It is a very big embassy.

“I’m sure that has been looked at and I’m sure that appropriate security advice has been taken.”

He added: “But the fact that there is a Chinese embassy in itself has always been the case and will always be the case.

“And I don’t think that that in itself is a threat to our security any more than having a dispersed number of buildings across the capital that we have at the moment.”

It comes despite reports this week that the plans for the site, near the Tower of London, include 208 secret rooms and a hidden chamber.

Critics fear the secret rooms, located in the site’s basement, could be used for the detention of dissidents who have fled the Chinese state for Britain.

The hidden chamber would be located in close proximity to data cables said to be crucial for financial sector communications between the City of London and Canary Wharf, The Telegraph reported.

But Sir Keir Starmer is reportedly poised to announce that the proposal has finally been approved after the decision was repeatedly pushed back.

On Saturday afternoon, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the site, some with flags and banners, chanting “no mega-embassy”.

Speaking at the protest, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch called for the government to intervene to stop the plans.

Accusing the government of being “scared of China”, she said: “I will always fight for freedom, and I am calling on the government to stop this decision.”

Mrs Badenoch added: “We do not want a country that spies on our MPs having this super-embassy right here, and I will do everything within my power to continue speaking on your behalf.”

She said China is a country that has “harassed and sanctioned our MPs”, “harassed and abused British nationals connected to China”, it “helps our enemies, like Russia”, and “disrupts the global trade system”.

Labour MPs have also voiced concerns about the embassy, with nine sending a letter to communities secretary Steve Reed this week, urging him to reject the application.

They raised security concerns and warned the embassy could be used to “step up intimidation” against dissidents.

Ministers have promised to decide on whether to grant the Chinese embassy planning permission by 20 January.