Kemi Badenoch: Labour leadership challengers are 'all the same Left-wingery'

Kemi Badenoch: Labour leadership challengers are ‘all the same Left-wingery’

As the hours tick down to Thursday’s local election polls, things are getting ‘serious’ for Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.

While it is Labour that is braced for a ballot box drubbing, the Conservatives are also on course to lose hundreds of seats, mainly to Reform UK.

On the eve of polling, The Telegraph grabbed a ten minute taxi ride with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch to see assess the party leader’s mood.

Driving to her first campaign stop in a Conservative-branded black cab, Ms Badenoch said she hoped to spread the message that her party was the “sensible alternative” to failure from Labour failure or populism from Reform and the Greens.

“I’m saying right now, there’s only one serious party – that’s the Conservative Party,” she said.

“The Greens are away with the fairies. Goodness knows what the Lib Dems are up to. Reform are telling people whatever it is they want to hear, but they don’t know how they’re going to deliver it – that’s what they did last year as well. And Labour are making a mess of everything.”

At last year’s election, the Conservatives lost English council seats while serving in opposition — for the first time in 50 years.

On Thursday, the Tories look set to lose even more, as Reform picks up support in Conservatives strongholds across England, from the northern Red Wall to home counties heartlands in the South and East.

While Ms Badenoch’s position as party leader is thought to be safe despite a difficult night for the Tories, the local elections have the power to hasten the decline of Sir Keir Starmer, as they did for Margaret Thatcher in 1990.

There is widespread speculation that the Prime Minister will face a leadership challenge next week after losing an estimated 1900 seats and control of the Welsh Senedd.

Mrs Badenoch said she believes that if Sir Keir is challenged, he should call a general election and allow the parties to fight it out for control in No10. His replacements are often tipped as Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham or Wes Streeting.

“I think that the public should have their chance to have a say on what it is they want,” she said.

”It’s very clear that Labour went in pretending to be one thing, and now the public, who hadn’t seen Labour for a very long time, have a good clear idea of what this Labour Party is.

”So I do think so […] I think that if there was a general election today, we would have the best offer.”

The Tory leader said the three contenders to replace Sir Keir were “all the same left wing nonsense” and that none would have a mandate to govern in Downing Street.

“It’s just left wingery in a different outfit, with red hair, or with a cheesy grin, or just weirdness,” she said. “But it’s still the same Left-wingery.”

If the Tories are forced out in the East of England shires like Norfolk and Suffolk and the Red Wall, Reform claims they would “cease to be a national party”.

These elections seem unlikely to be the moment for Mrs Badenoch to reverse the decline of her party, but she insists it is still possible.

“My mission is to get out there, be straight talking and let people know that we are the serious party,” she said.

”I’m an engineer. I love fixing things. It’s one of the reasons why I went into politics. I like to solve problems, and we are different from all those other people who think this is a game show, and who think that winning the election is the end.

”Winning an election is just the beginning.”

Kemi Badenoch: Labour leadership challengers are ‘all the same Left-wingery’

Tags:

1 comment