Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch today dismissed calls for her to resign in the wake of her party’s dire performance at local elections.
The Tories lost more than 600 councillors and all 15 of the councils they controlled going into Thursday’s contest – among the worst results in the party’s history.
A surge in support for Reform UK saw the Conservatives squeezed between Nigel Farage‘s party and Sir Ed Davey‘s Liberal Democrats in many areas.
The ex-leader of North Northamptonshire Council, which the Tories relinquished to Reform on Thursday, is among those calling for Mrs Badenoch to quit as party leader.
But Mrs Badenoch, who was only elected to her role in November, defended her ‘slow and steady’ plan to revive the party’s fortunes despite ‘bumps’ along the way.
She suggested Reform’s success was down to voters ‘protesting’ against the main parties, with Mr Farage’s popularity based on a ‘feeling of frustration’.
Mrs Badenoch also pointed to the recent ‘volatile’ nature of British politics as she expressed confidence the Tories could return to power at the next general election.
But the Tory leader also admitted Mr Farage could yet be the UK’s next prime minister.
Kemi Badenoch told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme her party is ‘working on a plan’ to return to government
But the Tory leader also admitted Reform UK’s Nigel Farage could yet be the UK’s next prime minister
Mrs Badenoch told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme her party is ‘working on a plan’ to return to government.
‘When I came in, I said it was likely to get worse before it got better, and protest is in the air,’ she said.
‘What we had was Labour saying ‘all we need to do is get rid of the Conservatives and everything will be better’. Things got worse.
‘Now we have Reform saying ‘all we need to do is get rid of the Conservatives and Labour and everything will be better’.
‘I suspect things will get worse, but protest is in the air.’
Mrs Badenoch added she was ‘sorry’ to all those Tory councillors who lost their seats on Thursday.
But she also pointed to how Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer suffered a disastrous set of local election results in 2021, before his landslide general election win last July.
‘Four years ago Keir Starmer had his worst result, he is Prime Minister now with a landslide majority,’ Mrs Badenoch said.
‘We live in politically volatile times and what I have been saying is that we are going to take a slow and steady way.
‘There will be bumps along… but we can do this, and we will do it in four years, not 18 years, 14 years, 13 years like the previous oppositions.’
Jason Smithers, who was leader of North Northamptonshire Council until the recent elections, said he will demand Mrs Badenoch’s resignation when he speaks to her in the coming days.
‘I am on a call next week with the leader of the Conservative Party and I will be putting it to her that she should be resigning,’ he said.
‘She has not helped in these elections; she has not once come forward and helped at all.
‘I am in absolute fear the Conservative Party will implode unless we get a good Conservative who can rally the troops and bring us back to some type of party that is going to challenge.’
But, asked about Mr Smithers’ comments, Mrs Badenoch insisted the collapse in Tory support across council areas had been ’14 years in the making’.
‘That’s not going to be fixed after six months. This is six months into a five-year project,’ she said.
‘What we are doing is steadying the ship, being united. A lot of the instability of the past has gone away.
‘But I am not being complacent, I am not dismissive. Reform had a good night, we had a bad night.
‘And what this shows, for a lot of people who hoped that just changing leader again would fix everything, is that that’s not going to be enough.
‘We tried that previously and that brought us to an historic defeat.’
Reform won more than 650 council seats and seized control of 10 councils in a set of election results that Mr Farage dubbed a ‘Reform-quake’.
His party also won mayoralties in Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire, and were victorious in the Runcorn and Helsby parliamentary by-election.
Asked if she thought Mr Farage could be the next PM, Mrs Badenoch conceded: ‘Anything is feasible.’
She added: ‘My job is to make sure that he does not become PM because he does not have the answers to the problems the country is facing.’
