Badenoch criticises Tory handling of Brexit

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has criticised her predecessors for mishandling Brexit, saying leaving the EU without a growth plan was a "mistake".

In her first major speech of 2025, Badenoch will attack the Labour's government but also her own party for repeatedly pledging to lower immigration as numbers "kept going up" and for promising net zero carbon emissions by 2050 without a clear plan.

Badenoch pledged to tell hard truths "even when it's difficult to hear" to restore trust with the public.

Labour chairwoman Ellie Reeves accused the Tory leader of "doing the exact opposite" of rebuilding trust - offering nothing in opposition but more "infighting".

In pre-released extracts of the speech, Badenoch said the public "will never trust politicians unless we can accept our mistakes".

"I will acknowledge the Conservative Party made mistakes," she is due to say.

Badenoch has not named who she holds responsible, but in her speech will say: "We announced that we would leave the European Union before we had a plan for growth outside the EU.

"We made it the law that we would deliver net zero carbon emissions by 2050. And only then did we start thinking about how we would do that.

"We announced that we would lower immigration, but immigration kept going up.

"These mistakes were made because we told people what they wanted to hear first and then tried to work it out later.

"That is going to stop under my leadership. If we are going to turn our country around, we're going to have to say some things that aren't easy to hear."

Badenoch served as a minister under her three Conservative prime ministers - Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

A committed Brexiteer she voted for both Johnson and Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement after becoming an MP in 2017.

She served as international trade secretary under Truss, responsible for landing post-Brexit trade deals and promoting UK exports globally.

Badenoch retained the post under Sunak who added the business and women and equalities briefs.

Badenoch will also use her speech to draw a sharp contrast with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who she claims "does not believe he's ever made a mistake".

She will also attack Labour for announcing policies without a plan to back them up.

"When you haven't worked out what you're going to do in opposition, you will accept whatever you're given in government," she will say.

"That's why Rachel Reeves announced mad and bad ideas on snatching winter fuel and taxing family farms.

"Those options were presented to us, time and time again by officials, and we rejected them time and time again because they would hurt so many people for so little benefit."

Badenoch, who was elected Tory leader in November, has previously said she will focus on rebuilding voters' trust before announcing her own policies.

In her November victory speech, Badenoch promised to "renew" the party by returning the Conservatives to "first principles".

Responding to her latest comments, Ellie Reeves said: "The public rightly lost trust in the Conservatives after 14 long years of failure in government."

She accused Badenoch of offering "another speech, but no apology for her role in Liz Truss' disastrous mini-Budget that crashed the economy and left a £22bn black hole in the public finances".

"The Conservatives under Kemi Badenoch have nothing to offer in opposition apart from recklessly continuing to make unfunded spending commitments and overseeing yet more Conservative chaos and infighting."