As Andy Burnham jetted off to Ukraine for his first overseas visit as Prime Minister earlier this week, his opposite number was undertaking an international tour of her own across southern Europe.
The Tory leader met first Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni on Monday, before travelling to Greece to hold talks with its Premier, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The topic of conversation on both accounts was how to turn around ailing economies.
However, it was Badenoch’s decision to meet Meloni that caught most attention, as she clearly sees more than a little of herself in the Italian leader.
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Badenoch said that when Meloni was first elected people “wrote her off”, insisting she would not last six months. “In 10 days she will be fronting the longest-serving government in the history of the Italian Republic,” the Tory leader said. “She has shown what a serious centre-right government can achieve. I wanted to understand how she did it.”
