UK politics live: Badenoch admits Tory Brexit mistakes, saying party had ‘no plan for growth outside EU’ | Politics

Here are more lines from the “Rebuilding Trust” speech that Kemi Badenoch will deliver later. (See 9.36am.) They came from the extracts sent out by CCHQ in advance. I’ve included some analysis.

Politicians across all parties have not told the truth about this and instead keep prescribing solutions that are actually making things worse.

This problem is broader than one party, one leader, or one period of government. Generations of leaders and entire ranks of senior managers have been trying and failing for a long time. Many have not been honest with the public about the challenges we face. And others have not even been honest with themselves.

Analysis: At one level, it is hard to argue with this. For example, at the last election the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and other economists, were warning almost every day that the next government would have to either raises taxes or cut public services. The Conservatives and Labour both refused to accept this – and Labour is now claiming the state of the public finances came as a surprise.

But talking about politicians ‘not telling the truth’ can quite easily take you into deep state/conspirarcy theory/tinfoil hat territory. It is not clear yet how far Badenoch will push back against this.

• She will claim that, unlike Keir Starmer, she is willing to admit her party’s mistakes.

The public will never trust politicians unless we can accept our mistakes.

Labour are making a lot of mistakes. But the difference between me and Keir Starmer is that he doesn’t believe he’s ever made a mistake.

I will acknowledge the Conservative party made mistakes.

Analysis: In one respect, this is totally wrong. Starmer has gone much further in admitting Labour made mistakes before he became leader than Badenoch has in relation to her party. Starmer threw his predecessor out of the party. Asked if Boris Johnson or Liz Truss should be allowed to return to parliament, Badenoch has never said no.

If she is talking about Starmer’s willingness to admit personal errors, Badenoch has a point. Giving evidence to the liaison committee at the end of last year, Starmer would not identify any mistakes he had made as PM. But Badenoch is also terrible at admitting her own errors. In an interview last year she claimed: “I never have gaffes.”

Analysis: Only three? What about the state of the NHS, or the criminal justice system, or train services, or growth, or productivity, or university finances, or adult social care, or welfare costs, or the state of the armed forces? The list goes on and on.

Analysis: This is true, but voters are not clear yet what Badenoch’s leadership entails. Today’s speech might help.

For the next four years and beyond we are going to be telling the British people the truth, even when it’s difficult to hear.

The truth about the mistakes we made

The truth about the problems we face.

And the truth about the actions we must take to get ourselves out of this mess.

Analysis: That is going to require a lot more truth telling about Tory failures. See above.

Analysis: And why is that? If Badenoch ever gets round to delivering a ‘time to tell the truth’ speech about Brexit, there is going to be a lot to cover that Badenoch has so far never addressed.

Labour are having even worse problems than we did, because they announced policy without a plan.

Policies without a plan are not policies … they’re just announcements.

That’s why Labour are struggling. It’s the old cliche that “failing to plan, is planning to fail.”

Because when you haven’t worked out what you’re going to do in opposition, you will accept whatever you’re given in government.

Analysis: Starmer has published lots of plans. But there are plenty of non-Tory commentators who also believe there are many policy areas where Labour’s reform plans are either vague or untested (eg promoting growth), or thin/non-existent (eg schools, tuition fees or adult social care).

That’s why Rachel Reeves announced mad and bad ideas on snatching winter fuel and taxing family farms.

Those options were presented to us, time and time again by officials, and we rejected them time and time again because they would hurt so many people for so little benefit.

The chancellor took them because she has no ideas of her own.

Analysis: Again, this is an argument that has been made by non-Tory commentators.

The schools bill going through parliament now has one or two bits on safeguarding that may be good … the rest of it is worse than garbage. It is pure vandalism. The new Labour government will not fix any of the problems we have faced for decades. Because they wasted their time in opposition.

Analysis: Some Labour MPs also believe the plans in the schools bills for academies are a mistake. But when MPs were debating the bill last week, and the Tories could have focused on this argument, Badenoch instead chose to table a reasoned amendment that turned the whole debate into an argument about the case for a grooming gang inquiry.

The suspended Labour MP Mike Amesbury has pleaded guilty to assaulting a man in the street, PA Media reports. PA says:

The Runcorn and Helsby MP appeared at Chester Magistrates’ Court on Thursday accused of attacking 45-year-old Paul Fellows in Main Street in Frodsham, Cheshire, which was reported to officers at 2.48am on October 26 last year.

Amesbury was suspended from the Labour Party after footage emerged which appeared to show him punching a man.

He now sits in Parliament as an Independent.

The 55-year-old was summonsed to court to face a charge of section 39 assault after a file was passed to prosecutors on 29 October.

It is expected that this will lead to a byelection in Runcorn and Helsby, where Labour had a majority of almost 15,000 over Reform UK at the general election.

Amesbury has not been sentenced yet. Under the Recall of MPs Act 2015, the recall process kicks in if an MP gets a custodial sentence, even if suspended, or if they get suspended from the Commons for at least 10 sitting days. Amesbury has not been subjected to the Commons disciplinary processs yet, but that is likely to happen once the legal process is over.

Alternatively, Amesbury may decide to resign.

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is also giving a major speech this morning. Here is Peter Walker’s story from the preview of what he is going to say.

The UK economy grew by 0.1% in November, reversing a 0.1% drop in the previous month and easing pressure on embattled chancellor Rachel Reeves, Phillip Inman reports.

Keir Starmer is confirming what Downing Street is describing as a 100-year partnership with Ukaine on his visit to Kyiv today. This is what No 10 is saying about the deal in a news release.

The UK and Ukraine will sign a historic partnership, as the prime minister travels to the country to meet President Zelenskyy.

The unbreakable bonds between the UK and Ukraine will be formalised through the landmark new 100-year partnership between the two countries, broadening and deepening the relationship across defence and non-military areas and enabling closer community links.

From working together on the world stage to breaking down barriers to trade and growth and nurturing cultural links, the mutually beneficial partnership will see the UK and Ukraine advocate for each other to renew, rebuild and reform for generations to come.

The partnership underpins the prime minister’s steadfast leadership on Ukraine as his government continues to provide support. Spanning nine key pillars, it will harness the innovation, strength and resilience that Ukraine has shown in its defence against Russia’s illegal and barbaric invasion; and foster it to support long-term security and growth for both our countries. The treaty and political declaration, which form the 100-year partnership, will be laid in parliament in the coming weeks.

Yohannes Lowe has more coverage on his Ukraine war live blog.

Good morning. Keir Starmer is in Ukraine and, as Pippa Crerar and Luke Harding report, he is signing a 100-year partnership deal with the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

We will be covering the trip in detail in a live blog here.

Back in the UK it is also an important day for Kemi Badenoch, who is delivering a major speech on the subject “Rebuilding Trust”. She has been leader of the Conservative party for just over three months, and so far she has not had much success. Her performances in the Commons have been mediocre, her pronouncements on policy and values have either been predictable and reductive, and sometimes just bizarre, and she is being outplayed by Nigel Farage, whose Reform UK party is hoovering up her vote and is now level pegging with the Tories in the polls.

One problem Badenoch has is that she is leader of a party that suffered its worst election result in 200 years because its record in office was generally seen to be terrible. Badenoch has often said that the party made mistakes while it was in power, but she has not done much to disown former leaders and she has not managed to persuade voters yet that she represents a radical break with the past.

Today’s speech seems to be an attempt to change that. On the basis of the fairly lengthy extracts released overnight, it contains her strongest criticism yet of the mistakes made by the past government (of which she was part – but only at cabinet level from September 2022).

Here is the key passage.

I will acknowledge the Conservative Party made mistakes …

We announced that we would leave the European Union before we had a plan for growth outside the EU.

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.

We announced that we would lower immigration, but immigration kept going up.

These mistakes were made because we told people what they wanted to hear first and then tried to work it out later.

That is going to stop under my leadership. If we are going to turn our country around, we’re going to have to say some things that aren’t easy to hear.

The admission that the Tories failed on immigration sounds largely like a rehash of a speech Badenoch gave in November. She has frequently criticised net zero targets in the past. But what she is saying about Brexit does seem to be new.

Last year she criticised the fact that the last Conservative government organised a referendum on Brexit without a plan for implementing it if people voted to leave. This was a relatively bold thing to say, because it was obviously a rebuke to David Cameron, and at the time he was back in cabinet as foreign secretary. But comments like this were popular with the pro-Brexit Tory mainstream, who by that point were suspicious of Cameron.

Today Badenoch seems to be saying something slightly different – that Brexit went wrong not just because there was no plan in 2016, but because there was no plan in 2020. This means she’s also blaming Theresa May for Brexit failures, and probably Boris Johnson too. We will find out this afternoon quite how far she is willing to go in condemning Johnson, who is still popular with Tory members, but it seems to be a new approach.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning: Keir Starmer is in Kyiv, where he is meeting Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, and signing a 100-year partnership deal.

9.30am: Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

Morning: Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, gives evidence to the Covid inquiry as part of the module covering vaccines.

10.30am: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, gives a speech on British leadership and links with Europe.

Noon: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions at Holyrood.

1.30pm: Kemi Badenoch delivers a speech on restoring trust.

Afternoon: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, holds a meeting with regulators, urging them to do more to promote growth.

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