Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has thrown her support behind the creation of a new trade alliance between the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to help Britain protect itself from domination by increasingly belligerent superpowers.
It comes as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s efforts to boost UK prosperity suffered new blows last week due to souring relations with the US over the Iran conflict, dithering on EU trade negotiations and a fresh Chinese spy scandal.
Badenoch told The Mail on Sunday that as instability mounted across the world, strengthening economic and security ties with the three former dominions was ‘more important than ever’.
‘Our four nations have shared strengths in goods, services, and defence. By working more closely together, we can combine these collective strengths to boost our economic growth and our national security,’ she said.
Cheerleader: Kemi Badenoch has thrown her support behind the creation of a new trade alliance between the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
Andrew Griffith, the shadow business and trade secretary, said striking a deal would be ‘top of the in-tray of the next Conservative government’, adding: ‘Our nations share values, language and history – who wouldn’t want closer links?’ Collectively, the economic output of the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, collectively known as ‘CANZUK’, totals £6.4 trillion, putting the group behind only the US, China and the EU.
Aside from trade benefits, supporters highlight the four countries’ common political systems, as well as their membership of the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence network, which also includes the US.
The latest push to strengthen ties comes as Britain increasingly finds itself searching for new sources of trade and investment as its ties with the superpowers come under increasing pressure.
The UK’s strained relationship with the US took a further hammering last week when Donald Trump mocked Starmer as being ‘no Winston Churchill’ after Britain initially refused to allow US planes to use its bases for strikes on Iran.
Meanwhile, Starmer’s attempts to forge closer ties with the EU by unwinding parts of the Brexit deal were lambasted as ‘suffering from a lack of direction’ by MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Labour’s rapprochement with China to boost trade has also been thrown into fresh doubt after three people, including the husband of one of its MPs, were arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of spying for the People’s Republic, sparking calls for the thaw in relations between the two countries to be paused.
As Starmer’s attempts falter, calls are growing for Britain instead to back the creation of a CANZUK bloc as a counterweight to the superpowers. Interest in the idea has grown as Trump’s trade tariffs and haphazard foreign policy have disrupted the US-centric global order forged after the Second World War.
‘New partnership’: Pierre Poilievre
It received a fillip when Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, the main rival to Mark Carney’s governing Liberal Party, called for ‘a new partnership’ between the four nations to lower trade barriers, boost cooperation on defence and make it easier for skilled workers to move between them.
At a speech at London’s Centre for Policy Studies think tank on Tuesday, Poilievre said a tie-up could include deals for Canada to ship oil and gas to the UK, as well as collective defence investment to bolster the armed forces. With the UK facing another energy crisis as prices soar due to the turmoil engulfing the Middle East, shipments of fuel from Canada could provide welcome relief to struggling households.
Canada is the fourth-largest oil producer after the US, Saudi Arabia and Russia, pumping 5.8 million barrels a day, and the fifth biggest producer of natural gas. Canada and Australia also have big reserves of rare earth minerals, vital for high-end components used in defence while New Zealand is a key exporter of foodstuffs such as meat and dairy products.
Interest in CANZUK surged last year when Canada scrambled to find new trade partners after Trump slapped tariffs on imports from its neighbour, sparking a massive anti-American backlash.
It has been bolstered after Carney, a former Bank of England governor who rode a wave of anti-Trump sentiment to win Canada’s 2025 election, called on the world’s ‘middle powers’ to band together to protect themselves from domination by ‘hegemons’ including the US and China in a speech in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year.
He reiterated his stance last week on a visit to Australia when he told the country’s parliament that the two nations should come together as ‘strategic partners’.
Economist Julian Jessop told The Mail on Sunday that while immediate benefits of a CANZUK trade deal would be ‘limited’, it was better to ‘prioritise’ cooperation with Canada, Australia and New Zealand rather than trying to ‘realign more closely again with the EU’.
He said: ‘These three countries have similar approaches on a wide range of issues, from regulatory cultures to security and defence.
‘Negotiations on a CANZUK deal are more likely to be on an even footing whereas the EU still seems determined to punish Britain for daring to vote to leave the bloc.’
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