Tory MPs Plan to Remove Badenoch Following Party’s Significant Local Election Loss

Tory MPs have demanded that Kemi Badenoch, the party’s leader, be fired because she is “not up to the task.”

This week, as anxiety over the party’s future increases in the wake of Reform’s victory in the local elections, members of Parliament (MP) of the UK’s Conservative Party will gather to debate ways to remove their leader, Kemi Badenoch.

The Independent was informed by two senior backbenchers that they are meeting with other lawmakers to discuss the removal of the leader of the Conservative Party.

One of the MPs remarked, “We simply cannot continue as we are, and she (Ms. Badenoch) is not up to the task.”

The actions follow last week’s disastrous results, which placed the party’s survival in jeopardy as the Tories lost 674 seats and 15 municipalities. At the same time, Nigel Farage announced that his party had won 676 seats and overall control of 10 councils, replacing the Conservatives as the primary opposition to Labour.

“These results were actually worse than last year’s general election,” stated a Conservative Member of Parliament. In some ways, we have regressed.

Last Thursday’s crushing defeat cost Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives control of 15 councils and hundreds of council members.

Six months after Robert Jenrick’s initial effort at leadership failed, it is believed that several Tories have also reached out to him to run for office again. It is alleged that the conversations over Ms. Badenoch’s future “go beyond the usual suspects,” even though some of those involved in the conspiracy were his supporters.

According to the story, former foreign secretary Sir James Cleverly is reportedly putting himself in a position to run for leadership as a centrist challenger to Mr. Jenrick, who leans right.

Badenoch “knows she has my full support,” Sir James told GB News over the weekend, but he added that he could “rule nothing out and nothing in” about a possible leadership bid in the event of a vacancy.

In the parliamentary party, Badenoch’s detractors have expressed their annoyance at the absence of a plan to handle Reform.

Specifically, despite backing from prominent Brexiteer Sir Bill Cash, an attempt to win her support for an anti-Reform attack unit, aided by former Farage associates from Ukip and the Brexit Party who had joined the Tories, was met with silence.

“I feel like I have been banging my head against a brick wall trying to find out what the strategy is to take on Farage and Reform,” remarked a senior backbencher. Nothing has occurred.

On a day when hundreds of Tory council members lost their seats, Jenrick, the shadow justice minister, made a noticeable post on X about how all of the candidates for his Newark seat had won. Over the weekend, he traveled around the nation to do party fundraisers.

However, one MP stated: “We might be done if we give Kemi another year.” She lacks charm, and there are no ideas, policies, or strategies.

Based on last week’s results, MPs are estimating that once-safe seats in East Anglia, Essex, Kent, and throughout the south of England and shires would disappear. Her selection of top staff, particularly former MPs Rachel MacLean and Therese Coffey, has also drawn criticism.

Another MP remarked, “They just don’t seem to understand the trouble we are in.”

Tory MPs, however, are also worried about the revised regulations, which state that a vote of confidence must be initiated by a third of them (now 41 MPs) writing to Bob Blackman, the chair of the 1922 Committee.

Although MPs have not yet publicly called for Mrs. Badenoch’s removal, other Conservatives have.

“I can’t see how a leader of a party can stay on with such terrible results across the country,” said Jason Smithers, the former Tory leader of North Northamptonshire Council, in response to the results, calling for Ms. Badenoch to leave.

Ms. Badenoch’s departure has also been demanded by Phillip Blond, the director of the think group ResPublica and a former adviser to David Cameron. However, Badenoch has stated unequivocally that she has no plans to leave anywhere.

The assumption that changing leaders may lead to success is incorrect, she told Laura Kuenssberg of the BBC, adding that her party’s current situation isn’t “going to be fixed after six months.” “This is about fixing our country, not about winning elections,” she continued.

The BBC interview with Ms. Badenoch, however, seems to have increased MPs’ anxiety. “She is speaking as though we have plenty of time to turn things around,” remarked a senior Member of Parliament. We don’t. Perhaps it’s already too late. Nigel Farage now has a lot of room to fill after her departure.

Members of the shadow cabinet are attempting to defuse tensions by warning Tory MPs not to attempt to overthrow Ms. Badenoch, claiming she “needs time.”