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You’d think MPs would be lining up to decry the US president’s support for far-right nationalists. Instead, only backbenchers and a few junior ministers bothered to turn up

Reform wasn’t alone in its cowardice. Kemi Badenoch, that proud defender of British democracy, was also nowhere to be seen. Nor indeed were any of her shadow cabinet. Instead it was left to Mike Wood, a shadow junior minister of such little importance that even he doesn’t have a clue what his job is meant to be, to speak for the Tory party.

In what may well be a first and last outing at the dispatch box for an urgent question, Mike managed to completely miss the point. At first he didn’t even seem to have grasped that the question was about the US security strategy. Instead he waffled on about the Tories promising to increase defence spending to 3%. No wonder the few MPs that were in the chamber looked baffled. And then when he did get to the strategy, he offered the remarkable observation that it was really all about China. People who were concerned about Russia were being neurotically conspiratorial. Almost as though the Tories were also going out of their way to appease The Donald.

Not to be left out, the Labour frontbench were also guilty of being absent without leave. Western’s urgent question had originally been directed at the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, but Darren Jones was nowhere to be seen. So the short straw went to Seema Malhotra, the lowest-ranked minister in the Foreign Office, to do the honours for the government. She looked miserable throughout.
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Then a few caveats. All done in a mumble. Hoping that no one in the US embassy was listening and would report back to the president. We did have a slightly different perspective on some things, she said almost inaudibly. But then again, too few to mention. It took a while but after a bit of pressing, she got round to saying that Sadiq Khan was doing a decent job. Though the president hadn’t in any way been racist in calling him a horrible, disgusting man. Would this do? Could she sit down now?

It was left to Western himself, with contributions from the Labour MPs Chi Onwurah, Liam Byrne and the Lib Dems Calum Miller and Bobby Dean to get to the heart of the matter: there was nothing remotely normal about the US security strategy. It was all there in black and white. A threat to destabilise European democracies. Support for far-right nationalists. Withdrawal from Nato. Support for Russia. It was a moment of existential crisis for Europe. It was time to wake up. When the US president says this stuff, you had better believe him. Just choosing to ignore it all, hoping things will work out if you don’t rock the boat was an abrogation of responsibility.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/dec/11/asked-about-the-donalds-national-security-strategy-the-commons-was-remarkable-for-its-absences