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.
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.”