One of the most prominent Leave supporters said Brexit would be 'a disaster'

Tory leadership candidate and energy minister Andrea Leadsom is one of the more prominent Brexit backers.

She took part in several televised debates on behalf of the Leave campaign, including one at Wembley stadium. Which is why people were so surprised to discover that in 2013 she had warned against Brexit in a public lecture.

Leadsom told Hansard Society's Annual Parliamentary Affairs Lecture:

I'm going to nail my colours to the mast here: 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.

Economic success is the vital underpinning of every happy nation. The well-being we all crave goes hand in hand with economic success.

Asked why she changed her mind by Andrew Marr on Sunday morning, Leadsom said: "It has been a journey... That speech was in April 2013 and things have so moved on." Right.

Leadsom also failed to rule out giving Nigel Farage a government job should she win the Tory leadership contest and become prime minister, saying: "I don't want to get into who does what."

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