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Kemi Badenoch Warned that he has six months to change it conservative Party around or he will face the challenge of leadership.
Senior Tory sources tell us she is celebrating her first year as leader Independent If the party suffers another terrible result in May’s elections in Wales, Scotland and English local councils, Ms Badenoch will have to go – along with Robert Jenrick The favorite to succeed him.
Whereas Ms. Badenoch has performed somewhat well at Prime Minister’s Questions in recent weeks and was Widely praised for his conference speechCritics have noted that she has failed to improve upon Tories‘Historically low position in the polls.
A senior Tory source said: “Before Kemmy’s speech we were averaging 17 points in the polls and after Kemmy’s speech we were averaging 17 points in the polls. Nothing has changed and we’re going nowhere with them.” It is also regularly reported that the party averaged around 24 percent a year ago when she became leader.
Meanwhile a shadow minister complained that after the conference speech, where she unveiled a number of policies including scrapping stamp duty, she was largely relegated to the ground.
He said: “She gave a half-decent speech at the conference and now she thinks she can hibernate all winter. She’s forgotten she’s the leader of the opposition, not a hedgehog.”
Another critic described Ms Badenoch as the “living dead” and that “everyone is waiting for the end”.
He added: “Maybe some action will be taken against him in January or February as the reality of electoral oblivion sets in, but it will probably be May now – but no later.”
However, one frustrated MP expressed fears that “if we wait until May it may be too late”.
The veteran MP said: “Robert [Jenrick] Clearly there is more energy, more focus and better ideas. We are wandering right now and if we continue like this, we will be destroyed, because Improvement “It will be able to establish itself as the main party of the centre-right in the minds of the people.”
Since Ms Badenoch became leader, Nigel Farage has seen a steady stream of defections from the Conservatives to his Reform UK. High-profile scalps included Current MP Danny Krugerwho was a shadow minister under Ms Badenoch, as well as former Tory party chairman Sir Jake Berry, but there are also dozens of councilors who have switched allegiance, including 20 during the Conservative Party conference last month.
The party in Parliament is rife with speculation over who among its colleagues will be the next to emerge as a reform turncoat and several are said to be ready to switch sides.
While there is an appetite among some Conservative MPs for a leadership change to stem the wave of reform and allow the party to re-establish itself as a contender, there are also concerns that the public will not forgive the party if it opts for another leadership change, given that Ms Badenoch is the fifth person to take the helm of the Tories since 2019.
One MP said: “If we change leaders again we will look stupid,” adding: “It’s like not liking the Brexit result and trying to change it, you just end up angering people by trying to do that.
“It came up several times during the election that we changed leaders so many times, it was a real problem. Kemi needs time.”
Pollsters believe things are getting better in terms of public recognition of the Tory leader, but this is not translating into positive support for his party.
Tory peer and pollster Robert Hayward said recent council by-election results suggest Ms Badenoch could “turn a turn”, noting that a recent YouGov poll showed she had 51 per cent support among Tory voters.
pollster professor sir john curtis Agreed that his recognition among the public was improving, but warned: “The problem is that it is not translating into an increase in his popularity. So for every voter who likes him, there is one who doesn’t like him.”
He suggested that Ms Badenoch needed to do more to “reject Boris Johnson and Liz Truss” to improve her credibility among voters, especially “because she is focusing on the economy”.
He said: “People need to believe that they have a plan for the economy and that they are capable of doing it and they don’t have that yet.”
Despite the current political headwinds, Ms Badenoch appeared steadfast in her vision. He said, “This first year of my leadership has been about rebuilding. Rebuilding our party, our principles and our plan for Britain.”
“After defeat in 2024, we faced a choice: retreat in slogans or rebuild around values. We chose to rebuild. The Conservative Party now stands once again for what made Britain strong in the first place – responsibility, fairness, competence and pride in our nation.”
Problems for Tory leader come to light in secret memo Independent has revealed that the party appears to have lost touch with many of its grassroots organizations.
An email sent to association parties by the Conservative campaign headquarters said: “We are still not getting a lot of information from associations across the country.”
There are 131 organizations (out of 600) for which the Tories currently do not have an office email address.