Tory leadership election: Andrea Leadsom defends Brexit U-turn by saying she has been on a ‘journey’

‘That speech was in April 2013, and things have so moved on’

Andrea Leadsom has defended her U-turn on the European Union saying she has been on a “journey” since claiming that Brexit would be a "disaster" for Britain.

The senior Leave campaigner, who has likened herself to Margaret Thatcher in her bid to be the next Conservative leader, previously said that leaving the 28-member state bloc would be a "disaster" – despite being one of the leading voices in the Brexit campaign.

The junior energy minister, who is also emerging as a serious contender in the Conservative leadership contest, said in a recording three years ago at the Hansard Society’s annual parliamentary affairs lecture that she was going “to nail my colours to the mast here”.

In the recording, obtained by the Mail on Sunday, Ms Leadsom added: “I don’t think the UK should leave the EU. I think it would be a disaster for our economy and it would lead to a decade of economic and political uncertainty at a time when the tectonic plates of global success are moving.

“Like the rise and fall of the Roman and Greek Empires we are seeing the rise of the Asian and South American economies at a time when our own future is less certain. And to be honest economic success is the vital underpinning of every happy nation. The wellbeing we all crave goes hand in hand with economic success.”

A spokesperson for Ms Leadsom told The Independent that the recording was “taken completely out of context”. It is “complete nonsense,” they added.

Ms Leadsom also told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "It has been a journey.

"When I came into Parliament, like most people in the country I'd grown up as part of the EU and it's absolutely part of our DNA and I came into Parliament, set up something called the Fresh Start Project, which took hundreds and hundreds of hours of evidence about how the EU impacts on the UK on everything from immigration to fisheries and so on.

"During that process I travelled all across Europe with lots of parliamentary colleagues – up to 100 Conservative colleagues supporting this work – to try and get a really decent, fundamental reform of the EU."

She added: "When the Prime Minister came back with his reform, with his renegotiation, with the certainty of a referendum behind it...it was very clear the EU is just not reformable.

"So that speech was April 2013, and things have so moved on."

On when to trigger Article 50 and start the process for Brexit talks, Ms Leadsom said: "We need to get on with it. We need to seize the opportunity."

Meanwhile, Ms Leadsom has praised the ability of the late Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher to mix toughness with “personal warmth” in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph. “As a person, she was always kind and courteous and as a leader she was steely and determined,” she said.

“I think that's an ideal combination – and I do like to think that's where I am.”

It comes as the most recent polling of the Conservative leadership contest places Theresa May, the Home Secretary, as racing towards victory in her bid to succeed David Cameron. Ms May was backed by 60 per cent of Tory voters, with Mr Gove second on 10 points and Ms Leadsom on six, according to the ICM poll for the Sun on Sunday.

Among the party members who will vote to decide the winner of the leadership contest, some 46 per cent say Ms May would make the best Prime Minister. She has also been backed by more MPs, who select the final two candidates to go on to the ballot paper.

An assured performance in the televised debates during the referendum campaign earned Ms Leadsom praise among Leave MPs in Westminister.