UK’s conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has accused Prime Minister Andy Burnham of being ‘too weak’ to stand up to Argentina over its latest threat to ‘recover’ the Falklands.
Last week, Argentine President Javier Milei threatened to reclaim the Falkland Islands, and said the country needed to ‘act swiftly’ to release the Falklands from ‘British occupation’.
In a menacing speech which has set off alarm bells in Westminster, the Argentine president referred to his country’s defeat in the 1982 war by saying that taking the islands was the ‘best way’ of paying tribute to those who died.
He also threatened to impose sanctions on oil drilling off the Falklands by a British firm and said he would build a new naval base just a few hundred miles from the archipelago.
Since the news from Argentina, the Prime Minister has failed to respond to the remarks.
Badenoch argued that recent government policies and defense weaknesses have encouraged international challenges against Britain.
She told the Daily Mail: ‘I am worried that Burnham is fundamentally a people pleaser who can’t say no, and we have a Prime Minister who isn’t prepared to act in the national interest.
‘There’s also a lesson here for our sleepy Labour government. The madness of surrendering the Chagos Islands means other countries are now trying their luck.
‘If we do not defend our own interests, whether on energy or territory, others will happily exploit that weakness.’
Reiterating that under the Tories the Falklands will always be British, Badenoch added: ‘Javier Milei claims to admire Margaret Thatcher but forgets this lesson: Britain does not surrender to bullies.’
