Politics brexit Kemi Badenoch northern ireland

Kemi ‘I never have gaffes’ Badenoch claimed Northern Ireland voted for Brexit, and was fact-checked to her face

Oonagh Keating. Updated October 3rd, 2025

Another day, another gaffe from the Conservative leader (for now), Kemi Badenoch.

In an interview with the BBC’s Northern Ireland political correspondent Jayne McCormack, she insisted that NI had voted to leave the European Union. Watch what happened.

“The last time I checked, Northern Ireland did vote to leave.”

“Northern Ireland didn’t vote to leave. Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU.”

“Scotland voted to remain.”

“So did Northern Ireland.”

“Yes, Scotland voted to remain. A lot of people in Northern Ireland voted to remain – you’re right. But Wales and England voted to leave. Overall, we had 52 per cent of people voting to leave. The United Kingdom voted to leave.”

‘Last time I checked’ – translation: ‘I did not check’.

It was made all the more ironic because Ms Badenoch has previously claimed that she never has gaffes – which is surely a gaffe in its own right.

You can probably guess how people responded – but you don’t need to. This is what they said.

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This is the bottom line.

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Kemi Badenoch’s tale of being offered a place at Stanford University when she was 16 has been completely unravelled …by Stanford

Source @bbctheview Image Screengrab