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It’s election day in the United States and, in the coming hours, the final votes will be cast to decide the sundering nation’s 47th president.
The race is being watched intently (and fearfully) the world over — and Westminster is no different. That said, some SW1 types have better seats than others.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader and MP for Clacton, is in the US where he is due to attend an election day party at Donald Trump’s Florida home in Mar-a-Lago. Yesterday, Farage was in the audience for one of the former president’s final rallies, where Trump referred to the Reform chief as the “big winner” of the last UK general election. (Reform won five MPs).
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“He’s shaking it up pretty good over there”, Trump added. Watch the Republican nominee’s rambling “weave” in full here.
Meanwhile, Lord (William) Hague, the former Conservative leader and foreign secretary, used his column in The Times today to describe Trump as “a serious danger” to democracy.
Hague wrote: “It is hard for British Conservatives to accept that the Republican Party we knew so recently has become inhabited by something quite different, by a cult of personality rather than a political philosophy.”
Trump, of course, is the subject of a long-running debate in the Conservative Party. Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Robert Jenrick are among the Tories who have expressed admiration and/or support for the former president.
For what to expect this US election day, including when the victor will be declared, read on here.
But below: some thoughts on Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet, which assembled this morning for its inaugural meeting. The headline picks include Mel Stride as shadow chancellor, Priti Patel as shadow foreign secretary and Robert Jenrick as shadow justice secretary. (Full list here).
Lunchtime briefing
US election day is here: what to expect and when will we know who won?
Lunchtime soundbite
‘My team draws on talents from across our party, based on meritocracy and with a breadth of experience and perspective, just as I promised during the campaign’
— Kemi Badenoch comments as she holds her first shadow cabinet meeting.
Now try this…
‘Without hard thinking on tax and the state, Kemi Badenoch is doomed to fail’
The Financial Times’ Stephen Bush writes that the new Tory leader can’t rely on Labour being derailed by global events or problems with its own model. (Paywall)
‘Trump should concede and play golf if he loses, says Brit ally Farage’
Politico reports.
‘Third of Tory voters don’t think new leader will fight next election’
PoliticsHome reports.
On this day in 2022:
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