Reopening Brexit negotiations would be 'terrible idea', Kemi Badenoch tells Andy Burnham

Kemi Badenoch received a long standing ovation for attacking Reform UK, accusing the party of debating whether her children are English.

Reopening Brexit negotiations would be a "terrible idea", Kemi Badenoch has said, hitting out at Andy Burnham's pledge to bring the UK closer with Europe.

She told the Conservative Party Conference “can you imagine having to go through that again”, in today’s closing leader’s speech which lasted more than an hour.

Mrs Badenoch repeatedly attacked the Burnham Government on the economy, saying: “It’s the same old high tax, high spend Labour. No common sense.

“Addicted to welfare. Drowning our country in debt. Choking our economy with taxes.”

And she also hit out at Mr Burnham’s announcement, in his own conference speech, that he would look to find a “consensus” about moving the UK closer to the EU.

He said that “everything is on the table” when it comes to a future relationship, including potentially rejoining the bloc.

She said: “In Liverpool last week, he promised a national care service at a cost of £18bn without a plan to pay for it.

“He is going to make the same mistakes and we will all pay for those mistakes.

“He wants to reopen the Brexit debate, can you imagine having to go through that again … I think that is a terrible idea.

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

“Those were Andy Burnham’s exact words when he was campaigning in Makerfield. What has changed?”

Mrs Badenoch also received a long standing ovation for attacking Reform UK, accusing the party of wanting to “take us backwards” and debate whether her children are English.

The Conservative leader emphatically ruled out calls for her party to form a pact with Reform in a future election, saying “we are not uniting with that”.

Mrs Badenoch used her conference speech to hit out at her former colleague Suella Braverman, who suggested that only white people can be English, accusing Reform of wanting to “debate whether my mixed-race children are English”.

Mrs Braverman, a former Conservative home secretary, sparked a row over racism when she suggested on the BBC’s Question Time programme that non-white people born in the UK could be British, but not English.

Addressing the conference in Birmingham, Mrs Badenoch said: “I don’t want to live in a country run by people who threaten journalists … and debate whether my mixed-race children are English.

“I don’t want to explain to my son when we’re watching our brilliant England team play football that some people don’t think our black players are English.

“I remember back in the day when Ian Wright and John Barnes were playing, nobody was questioning whether they were English.

“We certainly didn’t have sitting MPs questioning whether they were English – we must not let these people take us backwards, that is not the country we are.

“Reform MPs are openly questioning people’s identity. They are not like us. We are not like them. We are different.

“We are the Conservative Party. ”

She also apologised to Reform voters, saying her party had let them down and they deserved better.

“Many of them are our people,” she said.

“We let them down and we want them to come back home. They deserve better than Reform politicians.”

She took aim at Reform leader Nigel Farage’s “fishy £5 million ‘personal gift’” and investigations surrounding the party.

“To those who say ‘unite the right’, we are not uniting with that,” she said, to a standing ovation.

Responding to the speech on X, Mr Farage said: “Kemi’s speech today confirmed what we already knew, she has no vision for the country.”