--- title: U.K. Election: Why the Danish Prime Minister is Campaigning description: Politicians don't normally get involved in other countries' elections canonical: https://time.com/3850015/helle-thorning-schmidt-uk-election/ author: Conal Urquhart article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-07T12:06:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:00:30.049Z article:section: World og:title: U.K. Election: Why the Danish Prime Minister is Campaigning og:description: Politicians don't normally get involved in other countries' elections og:url: https://time.com/3850015/helle-thorning-schmidt-uk-election/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd9044170a3e4b9e9/6987eebf524fc05665df09a7/helle-thorning-schmidt.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Helle Thorning-Schmidt og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.K. Election: Why the Danish Prime Minister is Campaigning twitter:description: Politicians don't normally get involved in other countries' elections twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd9044170a3e4b9e9/6987eebf524fc05665df09a7/helle-thorning-schmidt.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why the Danish Prime Minister Is Campaigning in the U.K. Election by [Conal Urquhart](/author/conal-urquhart/) ## Conal Urquhart May 7, 2015 12:06 PM CUT  Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt in April 2015. Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt in April 2015.Jensen/Sipa by [Conal Urquhart](/author/conal-urquhart/) ## Conal Urquhart May 7, 2015 12:06 PM CUT It’s normally a rule-of-thumb that politicians do not get involved in the domestic politics of other nations. Yet the Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt was seen on Thursday morning coming out of a polling station in Aberavon in west Wales. On Thursday, the U.K. is voting for a new legislature and government. Thorning-Schmidt was there to support her husband, Stephen Kinnock, who is the left-of-center Labour Party candidate. Kinnock is best known in the U.K. as the son of former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. Thorning-Schmidt is best known in the U.S. as [the woman who incurred Michelle Obama’s displeasure](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=helle+thorning-schmidt+obama&client=firefox-a&hs=eBh&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&channel=sb&tbm=isch&imgil=RP1-BBDJeKJTkM%253A%253BiKOnZ1W%5F0i2pVM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fnypost.com%25252F2013%25252F12%25252F12%25252Fobamas-flirt-with-danish-prime-minister-is-a-disgrace%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=RP1-BBDJeKJTkM%253A%252CiKOnZ1W%5F0i2pVM%252C%5F&usg=%5F%5F8OyJPlvITr9HdQtJGWh5--aSoqs%3D&biw=1704&bih=983&ved=0CCsQyjc&ei=nlRLVcSJKsuUsAHU0IHAAQ#imgrc=RP1-BBDJeKJTkM%253A%3BiKOnZ1W%5F0i2pVM%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fthenypost.files.wordpress.com%252F2013%252F12%252Fselfie-1-feature.jpg%253Fw%253D840%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fnypost.com%252F2013%252F12%252F12%252Fobamas-flirt-with-danish-prime-minister-is-a-disgrace%252F%3B840%3B560 "undefined") after posing for a selfie with her husband and and U.K Prime Minister David Cameron (who is the leader of the right-of-center Conservative Party) in 2013 at the funeral of Nelson Mandela. Kinnock said he was hoping for a good result. “We’ve worked hard for every single vote so I don’t think we describe it as a safe seat at all. It’s a seat where you have to fight for every single vote. We’ve had thousands of conversations, almost up to 10,000, walked hundreds of miles, I’ve had a great team helping.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3850015/helle-thorning-schmidt-uk-election/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3850015/helle-thorning-schmidt-uk-election/"},"headline":"Why the Danish Prime Minister Is Campaigning in the U.K. Election","datePublished":"2015-05-07T12:06:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:00:30.049Z","description":"Politicians don't normally get involved in other countries' elections","url":"https://time.com/3850015/helle-thorning-schmidt-uk-election/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd9044170a3e4b9e9/6987eebf524fc05665df09a7/helle-thorning-schmidt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Conal Urquhart","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/conal-urquhart/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd9044170a3e4b9e9/6987eebf524fc05665df09a7/helle-thorning-schmidt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Helle Thorning-Schmidt","caption":"Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt in April 2015.","creditText":"Jensen/Sipa","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3850015/helle-thorning-schmidt-uk-election/","name":"Why the Danish Prime Minister Is Campaigning in the U.K. Election"}}]}] ```