In her first speech of 2025, Kemi Badenoch takes responsibility for Tory missteps on Brexit, immigration, and net-zero policies, vowing a new approach under her leadership

In her first speech of the year, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch made a candid admission, acknowledging that her party made several key mistakes, particularly in its handling of Brexit, immigration, and net-zero policies. Badenoch, who has been the party leader for several months, took a frank approach in addressing the public and confessed that the Tories had failed to deliver a clear plan for the country after their Brexit departure from the European Union.

“We announced that we would leave the European Union before we had a plan for growth outside the EU,” Badenoch stated during a speech at an event in central London. “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.”

Badenoch, who served as a minister under three Conservative prime ministers—Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak—admitted that the party had been guilty of making announcements without sufficient planning. She also reflected on the failures of immigration policy, acknowledging that despite pledges to lower immigration, the numbers continued to rise, leaving the public frustrated.

“The Conservative Party made mistakes, and I understand why the British people made it so clear in July that we needed to change,” Badenoch said. “We were making announcements without proper plans… That is going to stop under my leadership.”

Badenoch’s speech follows her promise to reset the party’s relationship with the electorate, emphasising transparency and a commitment to moving forward with clear, well-thought-out policies. She argued that the previous approach of promising popular policies and then attempting to figure out how to deliver them later had led to a loss of trust.

A key point of her speech was Brexit, a process that has been deeply divisive within both the Conservative Party and the wider public. While Badenoch supported Brexit during the referendum and backed both Boris Johnson and Theresa May’s withdrawal agreements, reports have consistently indicated that the UK’s exit from the EU has had negative economic consequences, including a decline in exports and increased food costs. Some estimates suggest that Brexit could leave the UK £311 billion worse off by the mid-2030s.

Despite these challenges, Badenoch reiterated her commitment to taking responsibility for the mistakes of the past and crafting policies that will provide clear benefits to the British people. Under her leadership, she vowed that there would be a focus on realistic solutions to the country’s pressing issues.

THE GUARDIAN

Kemi Badenoch’s “relaunch” speech at the Institute of Directors failed to deliver any meaningful vision for the Tory party’s future. Just 10 weeks into her leadership, Badenoch struggled to offer a coherent message, leaving many questioning her competence and resolve. Despite promising to address the failures of the past 14 years, she offered little in terms of concrete policy solutions, opting instead for vague apologies that avoided naming the real culprits within her party. The speech had a dispiriting tone, with Badenoch admitting the challenges of leading a party in crisis but offering no new ideas or direction. While she sought to distance herself from past leaders, her inability to take responsibility or propose a clear path forward left her speech feeling like a missed opportunity. With little to rally the party behind, her leadership appears increasingly untenable.

SKY NEWS

In her first speech of 2025, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch admitted her party’s mishandling of Brexit, stating that the UK left the EU “without a plan for growth.” Acknowledging the Tories’ broader mistakes, she listed issues like immigration and net-zero policies, criticising her predecessors for making announcements without concrete plans. Badenoch said the party had promised what people wanted to hear, but failed to deliver effective strategies. She pledged that under her leadership, this approach would end. Badenoch, who supported Brexit during the referendum, acknowledged the economic fallout from leaving the EU, including the decline in exports and rising costs. Her message sought to regain the trust of the British public by being upfront about past failures and offering a new path forward, focusing on practical solutions rather than reactive promises