Badenoch says Conservatives won't 'unpick' the Windsor Framework - ending any unionist hope of Tory support on Irish Sea border

She has also said that any move to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) would need a “proper plan” for the entire United Kingdom – amid concerns about the impact on the Belfast Agreement.

The Conservative leader – who was speaking to the News Letter during her visit to Belfast at the weekend – said mistakes made during the Brexit process could not be repeated.

Asked if the Windsor Framework is working, Mrs Badenoch warned against “going backwards” on the deal.

“We know that it was a very difficult settlement. But the Windsor Framework, as we negotiated it, was an improvement on what we had before.

“I don't think that this is something that the Conservatives now are looking to unpick. We have a Labour government. We are not in government anymore, and what we need to do is make sure that we don't start going backwards on any of the things that we have done”, she said.

In January, Kemi Badenoch backed opposition – led by Jim Allister – to new legislation on the Irish Sea border. It is understood the opposition wanted to send a message to the Labour government that their support couldn’t be taken for granted – but Mrs Badenoch’s comments to the News Letter confirms there is no shift against the Tory-negotiated trade deal with the EU.

Northern Ireland poses a choice for Tory eurosceptics beyond trade. Membership of the ECHR (a legal treaty separate from the EU) has been a source of controversy among the party’s backbenchers for decades – with many arguing it is tying the UK’s hands on issues such as immigration.

In a speech and Q&A event with the Policy Exchange think tank last week, the Tory leader suggested that the UK would have to leave the convention if it stops the country from doing “what is right”.

Last year, legal experts warned a Westminster committee that it is unlikely the UK could withdraw from the ECHR without triggering a review procedure built into the 1998 Belfast Agreement. Some unionist politicians are concerned about that prospect – fearing it could further damage Northern Ireland’s position in the UK – with nationalists and Alliance also opposed to any such move.

Asked by the News Letter if the Conservative Party had considered the potential impact on Northern Ireland, Mrs Badenoch said there would need to be a proper examination of all of the consequences of such a policy.

“We're not making policy announcements without having thought through a proper plan. When I stood for the leadership, I said that I was not opposed to leaving the ECHR, but I was opposed to leaving with no plan.

“And at the moment, there is no plan. We need to look at the entire framework around law”, she said, adding that the ECHR is just one of many things which is “creating problems across the board, and we need to have a proper policy commission around it in order to look at whether we can improve it, or whether we need to leave”.

The Windsor Framework already ties Northern Ireland into EU rights legislation which is no longer applicable in the rest of the UK. Last year, the High Court in Belfast stopped the previous UK government’s flagship Rwanda immigration scheme from operating here because it clashed with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Asked if leaving the EHCR could add to problems caused by the framework, the Tory leader said they needed to be “very careful”.

“You're absolutely right that this is one of the consequences that needs to be thought through without people just announcing that we need to that we need to leave. So let's take a step back from the talking about leaving and look at the specific problems and how we can use that deal with them as a United Kingdom, rather than just lurching to to announcements”.

She said there had been “no plan on how we were going to leave” the EU.

“We cannot make those mistakes again, it's important that we get serious and everything is not just thought through, but look at all of the consequential impacts, not just in Northern Ireland, but in other areas of legislation, and in other portfolios outside just what the Ministry of Justice and perhaps the home office looked at”.