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Calls for resignation are not serious - Badenoch

Simon Dedman
BBC political reporter, East of England
PA Media Kemi Badenoch holding her hands in the air. She is wearing a black blazer over a blue top, and has her mouth open while speaking in a sitting room at a hospice.PA Media
Kemi Badenoch said she was not quitting at "the first sign of trouble"

Kemi Badenoch said calls for her to resign as leader of the Conservative party after the local elections were "just not serious".

The party lost 674 councillors when voters went to the polls on 1 May, surrendering control of 16 local authorities.

Badenoch, MP for North West Essex, told the BBC she had a "long-term plan" and members "knew I was going to take things slowly".

Her comments followed Jason Smithers, the former Tory leader of North Northamptonshire Council, arguing: "She should be resigning."

Two-thirds of the seats defended by the Tories last week were lost to rivals, with the party receiving its lowest vote share in an election at 15%.

Badenoch said her mission as leader was to "rebuild" the Conservatives.

"What kind of leader would I be if I just quit at the first sign of trouble?" she asked reporters during a visit to a hospice in Chelmsford on Friday.

'Very challenging'

The MP said it never crossed her mind to quit as leader of the opposition, adding issues faced by the party had been "years in the making".

She was accused by Smithers, who did not seek re-election last week, of not helping local campaigns on the doorstep.

Badenoch was also criticised by the Tory leader of Broxbourne Borough Council, in Hertfordshire, who called on her to resign for "falling way short".

But Badenoch retorted: "I went to every single county that had elections.

"I said right from November, when I was elected, that it was going to be very challenging."

PA Media Kemi Badenoch speaking while using her hands to articulate a point. She is sitting in a room at a hospice, flanked by two women and a man who are listening to what she has to say.PA Media
Badenoch spoke to reporters while visiting a hospice in Chelmsford

The Conservative leader was asked if she was relieved elections had been cancelled in areas such as Essex this year, after the party lost counties like Kent to Reform UK.

She pointed to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough where the Tories won the mayoralty from Labour.

"Politics is changing, it was a multi-party election," Badenoch said.

"Essex is the same, lots of parties win here. Liberal Democrats are a challenge in Chelmsford, we have Reform, we have Labour, we have the Conservatives.

"This is what politics is looking like right now."

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