Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives have opened the door to a pact with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK to block any bid from Andy Burnham to force Britain back into the European Union.
Shadow Communities Secretary Katie Lam said “different parties” would have to decide “which side they would fall on” should a fresh campaign to return to the bloc be launched.
Ms Lam — who campaigned for Brexit during the referendum in 2016 — pointed to the EU’s litany of red tape and low rates of growth as reasons to stay out, arguing such a move would take the country “in exactly the wrong direction”.
The Tory frontbencher’s remarks could put her at odds with Mrs Badenoch, who has repeatedly vowed not to join forces with Reform UK.
Ms Lam told The i Paper: “I think to conclude that, to go back into the EU, which takes us in exactly the wrong direction in terms of regulation, in terms of agility, in terms of spend, I think is completely mad, let alone appallingly undemocratic.”
She insisted her party were “completely united” in blocking any attempt to reverse Brexit, despite large swathes of the party backing Remain more than a decade ago.
She said: “There is no world in which that is a good idea,” she said, arguing that the 2016 vote could not simply be overturned because Burnham disagreed with its outcome.
“The referendum was only a decade ago… and what he’s (Burnham) just decided unilaterally, (is) that this doesn’t count any more because he doesn’t like it, I think (is) outrageous.”
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Conservatives vow to do ‘whatever it takes’ to greenlight Heathrow third runway
The Conservatives will pledge to “do whatever it takes” to get a third runway at Heathrow Airport off the ground.
In his speech at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith will say: “We’re ‘all in’ for growth and we will legislate to sweep away the blockers to getting the infrastructure our country needs built.”
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has an “open mind” as to whether the country’s busiest airport should get a third runway, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool last week.
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