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 attacked 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".
Badenoch said the public "will never trust politicians unless we can accept our mistakes".
"I will acknowledge the Conservative Party made mistakes," she said.
Badenoch has not named who she holds responsible, but in her speech said: "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 claimed that as business secretary, she helped the Tory government scrap "about 4,000 EU laws" and end the "supremacy of the European Court of Justice".
But she admitted she left office with unfinished work.
"What we need to start doing is looking at where we have competitive advantage with countries around the world and use our regulatory system to exploit that competitive advantage," she said.
Badenoch said she would "back" Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer "if he does the right thing using Brexit".
"I do not care who gets the credit – we just have to start getting our country back on track," she said.
Badenoch used her speech to draw a sharp contrast with Sir Keir, who she claims "does not believe he's ever made a mistake".
She attacked 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 said.
"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."
In a media Q&A after her speech, Badenoch faced criticism that she had struck a "depressing" and "joyless" tone, giving Nigel Farage and Reform UK room to champion right-wing politics with a positive spin.
She said Farage "has had a head start" after "knocking around for 20 plus years" as the leader of UKIP, the Brexit Party and now Reform UK.
"I have been leading the Conservative Party for 10 weeks – let's see where we are in a few months and a few years," she said.
Badenoch also dismissed the idea of the Tories merging with Reform UK, saying: "Nigel Farage says he wants to destroy the Conservative Party, why on earth would we merge with that?"
Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper said: "It will take a lot more than this half-hearted apology for the people of this country to forgive or forget the toxic legacy of the Conservative government, in which Badenoch herself so prominently served.
"Badenoch claimed that Boris Johnson's partygate scandal was overblown, cheered on Liz Truss's mini budget and oversaw botched trade deals that sold out British farmers."
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