Jayne McCormackBBC News NI political correspondent and<\/p>\n
Brendan Hughespolitical reporter<\/p>\n
“The last time I checked, Northern Ireland did vote to leave.”<\/p>\n
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has mistakenly said Northern Ireland “voted to leave” the European Union as she defended her party’s record on Brexit.<\/p>\n
In an interview with BBC News NI, she said: “The last time I checked, Northern Ireland did vote to leave.”<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland voted by 56% to 44% in favour of staying in the EU<\/a> in the 2016 referendum, which saw the UK overall vote to leave by a majority of 52% to 48%.<\/p>\n When pressed, Badenoch later corrected herself, saying: “Scotland voted to remain, a lot of people in Northern Ireland voted to remain, you’re right – but Wales and England voted to leave, the UK as a whole voted to leave.”<\/p>\n ‘The best of both worlds’<\/p>\n Badenoch was speaking ahead of her party’s annual conference this weekend.<\/p>\n She has been the Tory leader for almost 12 months after her party lost the 2024 general election to Labour.<\/p>\n Asked how her party was good for the union, after it had delivered the controversial post-Brexit Irish Sea border, which left Northern Ireland under different trading arrangements than Great Britain, Badenoch replied: “Last time I checked Northern Ireland voted to leave (the EU).”<\/p>\n When told that Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU, she replied: “I do recognise the people of Northern Ireland voted to remain and we came up with a settlement – it wasn’t perfect, but it tried to make sure we had a way of Northern Ireland getting the best of both worlds.”<\/p>\n ‘Under new leadership’<\/p>\n