The Conservative Party's performance in recent local elections has sparked a debate within the party regarding the leadership of Kemi Badenoch. Some MPs openly called for her resignation, citing poor performance and lack of vision. They highlighted the rise of Nigel Farage's Reform Party as evidence of the Conservatives' failure to connect with voters.
Several MPs expressed concerns about the scale of the losses and the need for immediate action. A reshuffle was suggested as a means to demonstrate seriousness in addressing the issues. The party's failure to retain voters is seen as a critical concern.
Conversely, other figures within the party, including former chairman Lord Maude, expressed confidence in Badenoch's leadership and urged her to resist pressure to align with the Reform Party. Lord Maude emphasized the need for the party to demonstrate competence and principle to regain public trust.
But other Tory MPs said the local election results showed that she should resign.
“I think the leader needs to go, I think she’s lost the plot. She’s not good enough and I think the people around her aren’t good enough either,” one said.
“There’s no vision at the moment and there’s no leadership. We’ve allowed a void to open up and Nigel Farage has been able to move into it.”
Another MP said that they and colleagues had been shocked by the scale of the party’s losses on Thursday, which even took CCHQ by surprise.
They said: “There’s a very high expectation that on digesting this there will be a set of actions to deal with it. You’d expect her to do a pretty quick reshuffle.
“She’s got to show she means business and is actually serious about turning this around pretty much straight away, because the plan isn’t working.”
A Tory source said Reform “keeps stealing our voters“ and the leadership must act quickly “to stem the bleed because we’re just bleeding out”.
But others backed Mrs Badenoch and said that any plotting against her was wrong.
Lord Maude, a former chairman, said the party was “a phoenix, not a dodo” and would rise from the ashes “sooner than” people think under her leadership.
He said she must resist the “siren voices” urging her to “cosy up to Reform”, saying it was unrealistic to expect voters to have forgiven the Tories so quickly.
“There is no substitute for showing ourselves to be once again considered, thoughtful, competent and principled,” he wrote in The Telegraph.
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