Senior Tories are plotting to remove its Nigerian British conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, after the party’s disastrous local election results.
The possibility of the Tories getting their fourth leader in less than four years seems likely as the party lost hundreds of council seats across England and nearly been eliminated in their traditional strongholds.
The Independent news reported that discussions were already underway before Thursday’s local elections to find a way to remove Badenoch.
Senior Tories already told reporters that they plan to press Robert Jenrick, who came second to Badenoch, to challenge her.
Among the complaints against Badenoch is lack of vision and policies, failure to score hits in Prime Minister’s questions and a failure to properly confront the rising reform.
Speculation about Jenrick making a leadership push had been rife before the local elections after a recording of him emerging pronouncing on a plan to do a deal with reform, a move opposed by Badenoch.
After that, a letter he sent to all candidates without her name on it also emerged.
One senior Tory told reporters, “I am messaging Robert [Jenrick] to get his act together and make a bid to be leader. We cannot continue like this.”
One MP also said, “It is now just a matter of timing. There is no way she can lead us into a general election.”
A former ally of Badenoch’s added that, “She just does not have it. We have a choice of replacing her with Robert or a lot of us switching to reform.”
But the party’s co-chairman Nigel Huddleston insisted that Badenoch should not face a challenge.
“Kemi’s position is certainly solid. She’s only been leader for six months and she was out and about right across the country, and I can tell you this, everywhere we went, people wanted to see her more and hear more from her.”
Meanwhile, Badenoch has attempted to downplay the electoral disaster as the party loses hundreds of seats and confronts the growing influence of Reform.
She said in a statement that, “These were always going to be a very difficult set of elections coming off the high of 2021, and our historic defeat last year – and so it’s proving. The renewal of our party has only just begun and I’m determined to win back the trust of the public and the seats we’ve lost, in the years to come.”
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