Should the Tories distance themselves further from Trump?

As Trump’s tariffs trigger a potential trade war, which – according to KPMG analysis – could see the UK take a hit of £22bn, is it any wonder that some Conservative MPs think the party should be distancing itself more from the US President?

“I think we should be creating more space between us and Trump,” one wary shadow cabinet minister tells me.

They think if this presidency explodes in a way that, frankly, there is quite a possibility of it doing, it would be politically wise for the Conservatives to have some distance from their Republican counterparts.

Another Tory MP – who flags that Trump’s position in the role is time limited – agrees: “We should be more vocal when we disapprove of the US approach. I’d like us to be much stronger with it.”

The Liberal Democrats are hoping that by stepping up their anti-Trump messaging, highlighting what they deem a reluctance of Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch to criticise the US President, could benefit them at the May local elections. 

The party has been pushing for a vote on any UK-US trade deal, with deputy leader Daisy Cooper saying “both Conservative and Labour MPs should commit now to voting down any Trump deal that sells out British farmers and their high food standards”. As I wrote in my last ToryDiary, the current LOTO is not keen on becoming anti-chlorinated chicken advocates, with one source close to Badenoch branding it a “moral panic” and “successful marketing and successful protectionism” from British farmers.

But just as attitudes towards the US and Trump mark a dividing line with the Lib Dems, it too poses one with Reform. Following the Trump-Zelenskyy Oval Office clash, Reform leader Nigel Farage suggested the Ukrainian president had been “rude” and should have worn a suit to the White House. But Farage’s Putin sensibilities go further back, labelling the Russian leader the world politician he most admired in 2014. 

Although there have been moments where Badenoch may have been accused of cosying up to US Republicans, including doubling down on her defence of Vice President JD Vance after he said a US stake in Ukraine’s economy was a “better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”, the Tory leader has critiqued “starting tariff wars” that “make things worse”, and issued a stark reply to Trump’s attitude towards the Ukrainian President in the Oval Office, tweeting: “President Zelenskyy is not a dictator.”

One Tory figure is at pains to point out that “we have and will call out what we see as wrong as and when they come up” – and, for that, she has sympathy from some of her colleagues.

“It would be diplomatically unhelpful and counterproductive for the Tory party to be providing blow by blow running commentary on everything the President says or does,” they add.

“We are not the Lib Dems. We are more interested in putting Britain first on the world stage. That should be the focus.”

Even one of the MPs most critical of Trump commends Badenoch for showing “remarkable but quite proper restraint” and walking the tightrope between opposition and diplomacy.

“Her approach is more about maximising the unity of the UK and recognising that however dreadful she thinks Trump may be, the official opposition is better off engaging constructively.”

There have been vocal critics from various backbench figures, including Graham Stuart claiming Trump could be a “foreign asset” and former foreign secretary James Cleverly speaking of Trump’s “troubling question mark” over his support for NATO.

But another shadow cabinet member defends Badenoch’s “pragmatic” approach and says those in the party “shouldn’t go out of their way to insult or provoke” the US President.

“We do not need to be expending any more political capital on this right now.”

Another MP says similarly: “I can’t fault the American people for wanting a President who puts America first… we should leave Labour to be the ones to trip up on this.”

But in numerous polls the public has indicated where they stand. Trump’s net approval among Britons in the run up to his inauguration, according to More in Common, stood at an impressive minus 36 per cent and in February the pollster YouGov found that Conservative voters thought it more important that the UK supports Ukraine than maintains good relations with the US leader by a factor of two to one.

As one senior Tory MP relayed, they have never had as many constituents come up to them recently than to complain about Trump’s treatment of Zelenskyy: “Why, politically, would we want to be associated with that?”