Badenoch tells EU she would reverse Labour’s post-Brexit reset if UK ‘damaged’

Kemi Badenoch has told the EU’s ambassador in London that she would reverse any measures in the Government’s post-Brexit reset that “damaged the interests of the United Kingdom”.

Mrs Badenoch is due to meet Pedro Serrano, the EU’s representative to the UK, in London on Monday. The meeting between Mrs Badenoch and the ambassador comes a week before the Prime Minister will host bloc chiefs at a major summit in the UK.

The May 19 meeting is likely to be the first in a series of annual summits between the UK and the EU, and comes as ministers are looking to reset relations with Brussels.

In a letter to Mr Serrano, dated on Friday, Mrs Badenoch described Brexit as a “defining moment for our nation”.

She laid out five tests that the Conservative Party has when it comes to the UK’s relationship with the EU, including “no backsliding on free movement or compulsory asylum transfers” and “no new money” being paid to the bloc.

She would also want to see “no reduction” in the UK’s fishing rights and no “European Court jurisdiction” as well as “no compromise on the primacy of Nato as the cornerstone of European security”.

Mrs Badenoch explained: “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.

“We would take back any legislative or judicial powers handed over to the EU by the present government.”

A Conservative spokesman said that Sir Keir is “clearly gearing up to hand over the freedoms we won through Brexit just to be in Brussels’ good books”.

The spokesman added: “Kemi hopes that pledging to reverse Starmer’s EU surrender will send a clear signal to the EU that any lop-sided deal they sign with Labour isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”

On Friday, Sir Keir told the Guardian that he is “ambitious” about what could be achieved with the EU.

“I want a closer relationship on security, on defence, on trade and on the economy,” he told the newspaper.

A Labour source said that Mrs Badenoch “spent her time as Trade Secretary picking fights and alienating our allies rather than doing deals that put money in working people’s pockets”.

They added: “Now she is seeking to pre-judge a future deal that hasn’t even been agreed yet and would only be made if it was in the British national interest.

“The Labour government is getting on with delivering on the mandate we were given last July to build a strategic partnership with European partners to deliver an improved deal in the national interest.”