Kemi Badenoch makes embarrassing Brexit gaffe despite claiming she never makes gaffes

Kemi Badenoch made a huge Brexit blunder during a TV interview - raising questions about her claim that she never makes gaffes.

The under-pressure Tory leader mistakenly claimed that Northern Ireland voted to leave the EU during an interview with BBC News NI. She told the broadcaster: "The last time I checked, Northern Ireland did vote to leave."

Unfortunately for her, the nation did vote to remain in the EU back in 2016 - by a majority of 56% to 44%. When the error was pointed out she said: 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."

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Louise Calvey, executive director of Asylum Matters

And when she was pressed later, Ms Badenoch said: "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."

It comes ahead of the annual Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, which starts on Sunday. Pressure is mounting on her after a difficult year which has seen Nigel Farage's Reform steal a march among right wing voters.

After the gaffe, many took to social media to share a clip from December last year, in which the Tory leader told GB News: "I know how certain things might sound if they're not said properly. So I never have gaffes or apologise for something that I said, 'that's not what I meant'.

"I never have to clarify because I think very carefully about what I say, make sure that we don't sound shrill, that we don't sound like the bad guys."

Polling from YouGov found one in five (21%) voters think it’s likely that the Tories will no longer be a major force in 10 years’ time - and nearly half (45%) think Ms Badenoch has done badly as leader.

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Badenoch denied she was "looking over her shoulder" at Nigel Farage following a string of defections. She said: "It's not Labour, and definitely not Reform, only the Conservative Party is going to be good for all four nations of the UK.

"The party's under new leadership, I'm not here to talk about what the last Conservative government did, Labour is in power we need to scrutinise what Labour is doing."