Kemi Badenoch was reunited with ‘Tall Tory’ James McAlpine on Tuesday as she gave a powerful speech on defence.

Standing at 7ft 2in, Mr McAlpine is one of the tallest people in the country and towered over the 5ft 4in Tory leader.

The Oxford Brookes University student, 23, has described Mrs Badenoch as his ‘heroine’. 

He became the unlikely star of last year’s Conservative Party conference in Manchester when he was spotted among the shorter Tory faithful. 

Mr McAlpine was pictured in October stooping to speak to Mrs Badenoch, catapulting him into the spotlight. 

She had just finished delivering her leader’s speech and sought him out, thanking him for being ‘our tallest member’, sparking headlines about him being the tallest Tory in town.

This week, Mrs Badenoch was speaking at a rally in central London, where she delivered a scathing attack on Sir Keir Starmer’s £15billion defence plan.

The speech came as the Prime Minister was in Ankara, Turkey, for the Nato summit.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch met with James McAlpine after making a speech during a rally at Glaziers Hall in London on July 2, 2026

Mrs Badenoch used the speech to condemn the outgoing Prime Minister for leaving a £5billion ‘black hole’ in the Government’s Defence Investment Plan (DIP) for his successor to deal with. 

Dubbed the ‘tallest Conservative in Britain’, Scottish-born Mr McAlpine became a social media star after partying his way around high society events such as the Cheltenham Festival. 

Mr McAlpine has described the bullying he has suffered as a result of his height and said he was asked, ‘What’s the weather like up there?’ at least 20 times a day. 

The Scottish student was seen enjoying a boogie at last year’s racing outing, which was attended by VIPs including the King’s niece, Zara Tindall, fashion designer Jade Holland Cooper and TV personality Georgia Toffolo.

Despite not appearing very active on social media himself, the online sensation features in several TikTok videos.

There, viewers have become obsessed with his omnipresent attendance at all of the UK’s largest society gatherings – and his penchant for ladies who like to wear a Schoffel.