Trump was ‘morally right’ to attack Venezuela and seize Maduro, says Kemi Badenoch

Kemi Badenoch has praised Donald Trump’s seizure of Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro as “morally right”.

In her strongest support for the president since US special forces attacked Venezuela, the Conservative leader said he was right to intervene militarily to end Mr Maduro’s rule.

“Venezuela was a brutal regime,” she said.

“We [Britain] didn’t even recognise it as a legitimate government. I think that what’s happened is quite extraordinary. But I understand why America has done it.

“The reason why I say this is because, where the legal certainty is not yet clear, morally I do think it was the right thing to do.

“I am glad Maduro has gone; he was making people’s lives a living hell.”

Ms Badenoch said her response was different to other party leaders and MPs, partly as a result of her own background in Nigeria as a child.

“I grew up under a military dictatorship [in Nigeria], so I know what it’s like to have someone like Maduro in charge.

“I know what it’s like to have people celebrating in the street. So I’m not condemning the US.”

Asked again if sending special forces in to seize Maduro was the right thing to do, Ms Badenoch replied: “Morally, yes.”

She continued: “I wish there had been another way, but having had personal experience of what the people of Venezuela are suffering, I cannot say anything different.”

Ms Badenoch acknowledged that the US invasion raised “serious questions about the rules-based order”.

However, she opened a new divide with Sir Keir Starmer by questioning the relevance of international law in all instances.

Accusing the prime minister of “hand wringing” and “projecting weakness,” she said: “As we all know, international law is what countries agree to.

”Once people decide they don’t agree, there is no international law. There’s no world police, no world government, no world court. These are agreements.”

Ms Badenoch backed up her argument, stating that Venezuela’s opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, had said Venezuela had “already been invaded by Russia, by Iran, by Hezbollah”.

Ms Badenoch added: “Where were the people talking about international law then?”

However, she said her support for President Trump over Venezuela did not extend to his threats to take over Greenland.

”It is not for sale,” she told the BBC. “What happens to Greenland is up to Denmark and the people of Greenland.”