‘Ridiculous’ for Farage to claim he could easily renegotiate post-Brexit EU trade deal, says Badenoch – UK politics live

Reform UK leader said he was confident he could get a better deal with the EU, and would remove benefits from EU citizens

At her press conference Kemi Badenoch accused Nigel Farage of deceiving voters with his proposal to save £6bn a year by removing benefits from EU nationals with settled status.

She said it was “completely ridiculous” for Farage to claim that he could easily renegotiate the post-Brexit trade deal (which covered the rights for EU nationals with settled status). She said

It would be a bad idea because we spent a lot of time negotiating those rights, not just for EU citizens in this country, but British citizens in other countries of the EU.

You start unpicking that and you start unpicking all of the work that was done, year after year after year, with a lot of pain and effort during those years when we were negotiating Brexit.