Oral Answers to Questions

Kemi Badenoch Excerpts

Wednesday 28th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Leader of the Opposition.

[Mrs Kemi Badenoch (North West Essex) (Con)]

May I also give my thanks to the Clerk of the House and convey to him, on behalf of those on my side of the House, our very, very best wishes for the future?

There has been a bit of confusion this week, and I hope that the Prime Minister can clear it up. Does he or does he not want a referendum on rejoining the European Union?

[The Prime Minister]

There is no confusion at all. The Government have a collectively agreed position, which I have set out today. It is entirely consistent with everything I have said, including what I said at the time of the by-election.

The red lines in our manifesto, including those on freedom of movement, will stay firmly in place for the whole of this Parliament, but what I will not do is defend the deal negotiated by the right hon. Lady and the Government she was in, which, in my view, gave us a harder Brexit than was promised at the referendum, and has been bad for growth and bad for control of immigration.

[Mrs Badenoch]

It sounds as if the Prime Minister does not know whether he wants another EU referendum. I certainly do not. It is the Chancellor’s big week, and the Prime Minister popped up on telly and opened his mouth without engaging his brain, not for the first time. Can he explain why he decided, during Budget week, to reopen a debate on freedom of movement?

[The Prime Minister]

It may have escaped the right hon. Lady’s notice that we are three weeks away from a UK-EU summit. It is an opportunity to improve the poor deal that the Conservatives negotiated and to get a better deal in place for Britain—a deal that backs British farmers and British food producers, and that removes red tape from our businesses. If we get the right deal, it will protect our car industry, protect our steel industry and allow better co-ordination on migration. The Tories used to stand for these things. If they still do, will she back Britain’s negotiating position as we go into that summit?

[Mrs Badenoch]

The Prime Minister keeps talking about our deal, but he is using our deal. He is using our Brexit freedoms to take VAT off energy bills. He used those Brexit freedoms just yesterday to scrap import taxes on hundreds of goods. What he should be saying is thank you.

I asked the Prime Minister about freedom of movement. I do not think he has been talking to his Cabinet colleagues, because I will tell him who does not want a debate about freedom of movement: the Home Secretary—she has been very clear on that. The Business Secretary does not want it either. The Culture Secretary and I do not agree on much, but even she does not want the Prime Minister to restart this debate. What about his Back Benchers? Let’s have a show of hands—who wants free movement? I know the Prime Minister does not want to look behind him, but nobody raised their hand.

There was someone else who did not want to reopen free movement: an ambitious candidate fighting a by-election earlier this year. He said

“the last thing we should do right now is rerun those arguments.”

Does the Prime Minister still agree with himself?

[The Prime Minister]

I do, because I am not. I am trying to get a better deal for Britain at the summit that we are about to go to. The right hon. Lady has mentioned things said in the past. Can I remind her of what she said? [Interruption.] Well, I am going to—I am sorry. She said it was a mistake for the Conservative party to

“leave the European Union before we had a plan for growth outside the EU.”

She has just nodded. She may as well have said it was a mistake to leave the EU without a plan in place to control migration, because that is what led to the Boriswave under the Government she was in, when migration into this country changed and went away from revolving-door migration and towards long-term settlement. It is why my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary is having to reform indefinite leave to remain. She has my support in making those changes, but let us have a little humility from those on the Conservative Benches, who left Britain with low growth and migration out of control.

[Mrs Badenoch]

It sounds like the Prime Minister does not know if he agrees with himself or not. He wants to remind me about my words. I stand by my words. Where we make mistakes, we own up to them. Labour pretends that it never does anything wrong. [Interruption.] Yes, yes, yes. Indeed, that is the difference between him and me. He wants to remind me about what I said; I think it is worth reminding him what he said just this May about the Brexit referendum:

“It’s going to undermine everything I’ve said about strengthening democracy if we don’t respect that vote.”

But he does not respect that vote, does he?

[The Prime Minister]

I think I have answered that very clearly by saying that the red lines in the manifesto are firmly in place. The right hon. Lady stood there a moment ago and said that she admits mistakes. She was asked twice by BBC London during her conference whether Brexit, and the deal she negotiated with her colleagues, was good or bad for London, and twice she could not bring herself to answer that question. Perhaps, before she finishes today, she will answer it now.

[Mrs Badenoch]

I have said many times that, yes, it was, and the Prime Minister is using those freedoms today. He is using those very freedoms, but he does not want to admit that. He is the Prime Minister, not me. He wants to ask me questions. I am very happy to swap places with him, if that is what he wants.

I am not talking about something that he might have said 10 years ago, although I can read out those quotes if he wants. I am talking about something that he said just a few months ago. The Prime Minister was not here for the 2017 Parliament, but many of us were. We do not want to go through that again. The country was paralysed—it was miserable, regardless of which side of the debate you were on. [Interruption.] It was, because Labour Members would not respect the result, and they are doing it again. Does the Prime Minister really think the country wants to reopen that debate?

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, yes—now the right hon. Lady is speaking the truth. The country was paralysed by the Conservative party: low growth, insufficient control on migration. That is what this Government is dealing with, and my right hon. Friend the Chancellor will stand up and show that we have a plan to get that growth going across the country.

Where I am focused is getting a better deal for Britain. That is my responsibility, and I will lead from this Dispatch Box over the next few weeks. I will do everything I can to get a better deal for Britain—a better deal for farmers and food producers, less red tape on our exporters, more support for our steel and our car industries, more control of migration. I will stand here and defend doing that, as well as being true to our manifesto. That is the difference between this side and that side of the House: we stand up for the British interest. Where is the Tory party of old that used to stand up for those things? The reason she could not answer in this House today on whether or not she was backing the position that I have set out is that she is too worried about the threat to her right to stand up for Britain. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Just to remind everyone, it is Prime Minister’s question, so I would not worry about the answers. I call Kemi Badenoch.

[Mrs Badenoch]

I cannot believe that the Prime Minister actually said at that Dispatch Box that he wants to reopen the Brexit debate. He is in a different place from where he was in Question 1. Let me tell the Prime Minister: the country does not want to rerun this debate; neither, as it happens, do his Back Benchers. This country voted to leave the EU, and we should respect that decision. The Conservative party always has done.

Our economy is facing serious challenges. The Prime Minister needs to get borrowing down, because of their stupid decisions. [Interruption.] One of them asks, “Why?” It is because of their stupid decisions. They need to get borrowing down. He needs to get welfare down. He needs to get people’s taxes down. All of this can be done without reopening a debate on the EU, so instead of leaving it to his team again, I will give him one last chance to clear up the mess he has made: will he rule out, after his extraordinary comments, any referendum on the EU or the single market?

[The Prime Minister]

I have repeatedly set out the red lines of the manifesto, and can I just say this one final time? I am doing what I can to get a better deal for Britain, and getting a better deal for Britain, I can tell the right hon. Lady, is part of this job. I am standing up for British business. Can I tell her who supports what we are doing? The CBI, the Federation of Small Businesses, the British Retail Consortium, Asda, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer, Salmon Scotland—they all support what we are trying to do. Why does she not join us, with other colleagues across this House, and send a strong message that Britain is calling for a better Brexit deal, so that we can get growth going again, as my right hon. Friend will shortly show to this whole House?