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Badenoch’s three criticisms of Boris Johnson and Theresa May

In a major speech the Tory leader is set to distance herself from her predecessors by admitting to past ‘mistakes’

Kemi Badenoch has launched a stinging attack on the “mistakes” made by her predecessors over Brexit, net zero and immigration.

In a bid to underline her message that the Conservatives are “under new leadership”, the Tory leader will deliver a speech on Thursday acknowledging the errors made by her party in power.

And in an attempt to distance herself from the likes of Boris Johnson and Theresa May, Badenoch criticised her predecessors, claiming they “told people what they wanted to hear first and then tried to work it out later”.

In words issued ahead of her first major speech of 2025, the former business secretary said: “The public will never trust politicians unless we can accept our mistakes.

“I will acknowledge the Conservative Party made mistakes. 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.”

And she added: “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.”

Her comments on Brexit will be seen as a direct rebuke to both May and Johnson, with the former heavily criticised for triggering Article 50 to begin the process to leave the EU before working out what the UK wanted to achieve. Johnson, the face of Brexit, finally pushed through a deal that economists have warned has left the UK with a significant drop in GDP.

May was also responsible for writing the UK’s commitment to be net zero by 2050 into law, something Johnson seized on during his time in No 10.

Johnson also promised Brexit would lead to lower immigration as it would give the country back control of the UK’s borders, only for net migration to soar to nearly a million in 2023.

It came after successive Tory prime ministers vowed to cut immigration, starting with David Cameron who said he would bring it down to the tens of the thousands, who failed to do so.

Badenoch’s speech will come on the same day that Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey will call for the UK to seek to join the EU customs union to help protect the economy amid concerns about potential trade tariffs under Donald Trump’s incoming US administration.

The Liberal Democrat leader will urge the Labour Government to negotiate a new agreement with Brussels which has at its heart a system for goods to move freely between Britain and the bloc.

Sir Keir Starmer has committed to strengthen ties with the EU and said he wants a “better deal” for Britain post-Brexit, but has repeatedly ruled out rejoining the single market or customs union.

But Davey will argue that negotiating a new “UK-EU customs union” is “the single biggest thing we can do to turbocharge our economy in the medium and long term”.

Boris Johnson and Theresa May have been contacted for comment.



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