The government must be willing to “disengage” from international bodies if they are overtaken by “activists” or autocratic regimes like China or Russia, Kemi Badenoch will say in a foreign policy speech on Tuesday.
In what is a significant hint the Conservatives could advocate leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) under her leadership, Badenoch will argue activists cannot be allowed to use international institutions or law to further a “political agenda”.
The Conservative leader will set out a “realist” stance on international affairs, as she calls for a foreign policy that supports the UK’s “national interest” first and foremost.
She will say that the alliances and approaches that have defined the UK’s position on the international stage for generations need to be “reviewed”, and urge the government to ensure “sovereignty” is placed at the core of the UK’s foreign policy.
Badenoch will say: “Twenty years ago, Irving Kristol talked of a conservative being a liberal mugged by reality.
“And, on foreign policy, that is exactly what I am: a conservative. Not a cosmopolitan internationalist. Not a supra-nationalist. Not a neo-con. But a conservative realist.
“Our foreign policy should seek to support our national interest. We should review those alliances, methods and approaches which have served our world well for three generations; working together to the greatest possible extent with those nations which share our values.
“But our sovereignty must be at the core of our foreign policy.
“The United Kingdom must accept reality. No-one owes us a living. No process is an end in itself. We can no longer hide behind vapid statements that were, at best, ambitious twenty years ago and are now outright irrelevant.
“It is time to speak the truth: the world has changed. And we are not ready.
“So, we must change too.”
***Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for all the latest news and analysis.***
Badenoch will deliver these remarks in a major week for international diplomacy as the prime minister, Keir Starmer, prepares to travel to Washington DC for discussions over the future of Ukraine with Donald Trump.
The US president has stated his intention to end the war in Ukraine, the third anniversary of which was marked on Monday, and has even directed administration officials to begin negotiations with their Russian counterparts. Ukrainian officials have not been invited to the talks, with Trump having dismissed president Voloydmyr Zelenskyy as a “dictator”.
Starmer will use his trip to the United States to persuade the Trump administration that Ukraine must be involved in negotiations over the end of the war. Addressing a summit in Kyiv via video link on Monday, Starmer told world leaders in attendance that “Ukraine must have a seat at the table”.
He added: “And any settlement must be based on a sovereign Ukraine, backed up with strong security guarantees. The UK is ready and willing to support this with troops on the ground — with other Europeans, and with the right conditions in place.
“And ultimately a US backstop will be vital to deter Russia from launching another invasion in just a few years’ time.”
Badenoch, in a foreign policy speech trailed as “major” by the Conservative Party, will describe the primary purpose of a nation state as the defence of its “borders, its values and its people”.
She will add: “Secondly, we must stop being naïve about international affairs. We’ve let ourselves be fooled into believing that international law alone can keep the peace.
“But when faced with a regime with no respect for the law, we need to be realistic.
“We can no longer simply put our trust in international partnerships or supranational institutions as ends in themselves. Where these work for us and deliver in our national interest we will embrace them. NATO remains vital for European defence.
“We should always prioritise closer trading relationships with open economies, and as a trading nation we need to protect the rules that underpin global commerce.”
The Conservative Party leader will also warn that international law could become a tool for those who seek to “advance an activist political agenda”.
“Where international discussions achieve results, like with the AUKUS Partnership or the CPTPP trade deal, we must support them.
“But ‘international law’ should not become a tool for NGOs and other critics to seek to advance an activist political agenda through international bodies and our domestic courts”, Badenoch will say.
“And if international bodies are taken over by activists, or by autocratic regimes like China or Russia, we must use our influence to stop them. And if that fails, we will need to disengage.”
She will add: “The message should be simple: we must do what it takes to protect Britain. That means not just our independent nuclear deterrent.
“But also the ability to protect our critical national infrastructure — at home and under the sea. It means having the capability required to contribute meaningfully to NATO-led deterrence in Europe, and the new technologies for the battles of tomorrow.
“Alongside this, we need to make sure that we have the infrastructure to keep Britain strong. We cannot put virtue signalling ahead of a realistic assessment of our national interest.
“That means prioritising our Energy Security, building our domestic R&D capabilities in the key technologies of the future, and defending critical industries, and our arms manufacturing, which are core to our nation’s strength.
“If we approach this challenge as a zero-sum game — as a simple choice between defence spending and public services — we will struggle to persuade the public to back it. And there will be painful decisions on government spending.
“Any country that spends more interest on its debt than on defence, as the UK does today, is destined for weakness.”
Commenting ahead of the Conservative leader’s speech, a Labour Party spokesperson said: “Kemi Badenoch was part of a Conservative government which hollowed out our armed forces, made us more reliant on Putin for our energy needs and diminished Britain’s standing on the world stage.
“We will always work constructively with opposition parties in the national interest but the Conservatives must take responsibility for their record over 14 years of government.
“If Kemi Badenoch was really the ‘realist’ she says she is, she’d be apologising to the British people for the damage she and her party did to our country.
“This Labour government is fixing the Tories’ mess and delivering on our Plan for Change, the core foundations of which are economic stability, national security, and border security.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for all the latest news and analysis.
