Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch
Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch (Image: Getty/Parliament)

Kemi Badenoch has insisted she would reverse any measures in the Government’s post-Brexit reset that “damaged the interests of the United Kingdom”. The Tory leader is set to meet Pedro Serrano, the EU’s representative to the UK, in London on Monday.

In a letter to Mr Serrano Mrs Badenoch said the Conservatives “would take back any legislative or judicial powers handed over to the EU by the present government” if returned to power. Her party is said to be concerned about planned concessions on freedom of movement and fisheries.

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Sir Keir Starmer has used his first 10 months in Government to try to strengthen ties with the EU. He is also set to host a UK-EU summit on 19 May in the UK capital.

But Mrs Badenoch said: “I will make it my mission to take back every power he hands over to Brussels.” She has also claimed that the Prime Minister’s reset “isn’t worth the paper it’s written on”.

In the letter, first reported by the Telegraph, Mrs Badenoch wrote: “It is important that I stress that the next Conservative government under my leadership would not remain bound by terms that failed the five tests set out above, and damaged the interests of the United Kingdom and its people.”

The first of Mrs Badenoch’s five tests is that there must be no “backsliding on freedom of movement”.

She warned that the Government’s planned youth mobility scheme with the EU “could increase immigration asymmetrically” by allowing a new wave of European migration into the UK.

She wrote: “I am wary of arrangements such as ‘youth mobility’ or asylum returns agreements that could increase immigration asymmetrically, given our ongoing border challenges.

“It’s crucial that any agreements do not exacerbate these pressures, as they would violate the settled principles which the public in the UK voted for in the referendum.”

She called concessions on access to Britain’s territorial waters in return for defence co-operation with the EU would be “a betrayal of our fishing industry”.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “Kemi hopes that pledging to reverse Starmer’s EU surrender will send a clear signal to the EU that any lopsided deal they sign with Labour isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”

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Top Comments

  1. Comment by Don-Juan Trump.

    Great news, but this should be a pledge at the core of Tory and Reform policy, not taken on the back of any given leader of the day. We know the Tories change leaders like a seasonal shop display. They also want to think about how Labour would continually oppose any opportunity to reduce migration or improve our Brexit negotiations in Parliament and start making life harder for them in their plight to disenfranchise more voters whilst also making them poorer.

  2. Comment by Codfellow.

    Britain is an island nation and we have an island mindset, we’re not like all those joined together countries who have been intertwined for centuries.

    We voted to leave the continental trading bloc and to become the masters of our own destiny.

    We were fully aware that things would be rocky for a while but we went ahead and did it anyway.

    What’s wrong with that?

    What exactly do some people, both here and in the EU nations not quite grasp about that?

  3. Comment by SAVENHS.

    The EU is our largest trading partner by far. If we want to trade with a block of 500 million people, then we need to play by their rules. I know that Reform Ltd supporters don’t understand this. I was talking to one the other day, he didn’t understand why cars exported to Europe needed left hand drive.

  4. Comment by DuncanWalker1.

    Immigration is the New NHS. It used to be the NHS that Parties fought an election over with each promising to just throw even more money at it with one party, normally the opposition promising to throw even more at it than the sitting government. Today it is promises to stop or massively reduce Immigration numbers and the other party promising to stop even more but the trouble they have is they are the very same promises they have all been making and failed to catty through and the voters have had enough.

  5. Comment by UK Home of the Righteous.

    Dear EU,

    On May 19th, the soon-to-be outgoing PM of the UK, who has lost the support of the nation after just a few short months, will attempt to bring the UK closer to the EU in order to help try to save the break-up of the EU. In doing so, he does not have the support of the majority of UK citizens nor the UK political class as a whole.

    Both main opposition parties remain committed to Brexit and there will be no return to the EU. Both main opposition parties will reverse any attempts to bring the UK closer to the EU and one of these parties will be governing the UK shortly after the people disowned this government very swiftly.

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    Any attempts to gain control of UK affairs will be seen as a breach of trust, and a breach of the Brexit arrangements agreed with the previous government and may result in the termination of these arrangements.

    Regards

    United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.