Tory leader advised by senior members not to align herself closely to the president-elect’s success

Kemi Badenoch is being urged not to “fall into a populist trap” by pulling the Conservative party too close to Donald Trump amid a mounting debate among senior Tories about how the party can learn from the president-elect’s decisive victory.

Badenoch used her first outing at prime minister’s questions as Tory leader to highlight the disparaging remarks made about Trump by foreign secretary David Lammy before suggesting Trump would be thanking the Labour activists who travelled to the US to campaign for Kamala Harris.