Badenoch: I'll reverse Starmer's EU reset if it betrays Brexit

Telegraph

10-05-2025

Kemi Badenoch has said she will tear up Sir Keir Starmer's EU reset if it betrays Brexit.
The Conservative leader has raised the alarm with the EU's ambassador to Britain about planned concessions on freedom of movement and fisheries, saying: 'I will make it my mission to take back every power he hands over to Brussels.'
Mrs Badenoch will meet Pedro Serrano, the bloc's envoy in London, to set out her position on Monday and claim that the Prime Minister's reset 'isn't worth the paper it's written on'.
It comes in the run-up to Sir Keir's summit with the EU in London on May 19, which will be the first UK-EU summit of its kind.
In a letter to Mr Serrano, seen by The Telegraph, 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.
Emphasising the five tests by which she would judge the Government's EU reset, The Tory leader pledged to reverse any offending elements of the deal if she became prime minister.
She 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 also told Mr Serrano that 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.'
Mrs Badenoch told The Telegraph: 'After his Chagos Islands surrender, and the weak deals with India and the US, I don't hold out much hope for Starmer's so-called EU reset.
'Labour have wrecked our economy through Rachel Reeves' punishing jobs tax, and this new EU deal could throw open Britain's doors to millions of young EU workers just as unemployment rises at home. And this on top of a likely sell-out of our fishing industry.
'It's time Keir Starmer shows some strength. An EU deal done out of weakness will make life harder for British families and businesses. If he gets it wrong, I will make it my mission to take back every power he hands over to Brussels. I will always fight for Britain's national interest – not sell it off in a panic.'
But Mrs Badenoch stressed that she would not break any diplomatic protocols in her meeting with Mr Serrano, writing: 'It is the prerogative of the democratically elected government to determine the best policies for the country as it sees them.
'The Labour Government will be doing this in all its negotiations and it is the job of the opposition, my job, to hold them to account for their decisions. I do not expect to be discussing any details of negotiations when we meet or break any protocol.'