Kemi Badenoch has been urged to whip her shadow cabinet into shape and show the public they mean business after the local election bloodbath.
The Tory leader yesterday insisted her party was ‘down’ but ‘not out’ as she vowed to ‘come up with a plan that will deliver’.
Yet her MPs fear that Thursday’s results – where the party lost every council it was defending and 674 councillors – could be repeated nationally if frontbenchers do not pull their weight.
Critics say Robert Jenrick has not stopped campaigning despite losing the leadership contest last autumn but others told the Mail he is showing his colleagues up.
‘The problem isn’t Kemi and Jenrick, who are clearly pulling their weight,’ a Tory former minister said.
‘The problem is there is a chunk of the shadow cabinet who seem to be disinterested in getting out there and taking the fight to Labour and realising that this battle is existential at the moment and they’ve got to get on side and fight.’
He said any reshuffle should reflect ‘whoever has clearly not been pulling their weight’.
Kemi Badenoch has been urged to whip her shadow cabinet into shape and show the public they mean business after the local election bloodbath
Critics say Robert Jenrick has not stopped campaigning despite losing the leadership contest last autumn but others told the Mail he is showing his colleagues up
Several MPs fear that a number of shadow ministers are ‘coasting’ and letting Labour off the hook.
But the likes of shadow home secretary Chris Philp, shadow justice secretary Mr Jenrick and shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins are praised for their hard work.
Acting shadow energy secretary Andrew Bowie and Claire Coutinho, who he is covering for, are also frequently lauded, as well as shadow chancellor Mel Stride and shadow education secretary Laura Trott.
A former cabinet minister said: ‘Robert Jenrick at least is showing some keenness to rebuild the party after last year’s elections.
‘Most of his colleagues, however, seem oblivious to the mess the party is in. They need to develop a determination to win again, and to do so quickly.
‘If they don’t, there will probably be defections to Reform from among those MPs who want a proper government of the Right again and who accept that the Tories are a busted flush.’
Yesterday, Mrs Badenoch insisted the Conservatives would come back from their poor results in the local elections but it would have to be a ‘slow and steady’ effort
A senior MP said ‘some of the shadow cabinet are doing really well’ but ‘you do think some of them are very quiet’, adding: ‘Having said that, it’s not easy being in opposition.’
Yesterday, Mrs Badenoch insisted the Conservatives would come back from their poor results in the local elections but it would have to be a ‘slow and steady’ effort.
She told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme that Mr Farage had tapped into the frustration of voters but ‘he also doesn’t have a record in government like the two main parties do’.
‘Now he is going to be running some councils – we’ll see how that goes,’ she said.
