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”. She is due to say: “I will acknowledge the Conservative Party made mistakes.” She will not name 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.” She 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.”
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