Kemi Badenoch hails capture of Venezuela president by the US

The British Tory Leader, Kemi Badenoch, has hailed the capture of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela by US troops acting on the orders of President Trump.

The British opposition leader sees it as the moral course of action, saying the Venezuelan president ran a “gangster state”.

Badenoch, who spoke with the BBC, said her experience growing up under a dictatorship in Nigeria made her sympathetic to those celebrating the removal of Maduro.

She told the BBC: “What’s happened is quite extraordinary, but I understand why America has done it.

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“Where the legal certainty is not yet clear, morally, I do think it was the right thing to do.”

Badenoch, who was born in the UK in 1980, but grew up in Nigeria before returning to the UK at the age of 16 in 1996, added: “I am different from other party leaders and other people in the House of Commons.

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

Badenoch, whose Conservative party has been closely aligned with the Republicans for decades, said Maduro’s capture raises “serious questions about the rules based order”.

She added: “We act as if it is still 1995 where we’re living off the peace dividend of the Cold War and World War Two.

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“The world has changed.”

The Tory leader echoed Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Greenland warning to Trump after the US president suggested the Arctic territory is required for US security.

Badenoch said: “It is not for sale.

“What happens in Greenland is up to Denmark and the people of Greenland.”

The deposed Venezuelan leader and his wife Cilia Flores pleaded not guilty in New York, US on Monday to drug trafficking charges.

Their next court date has been set for March 17, 2026.