Tory MPs to discuss ousting Badenoch after election loss

Reform UK gains see Conservatives act before it is too late’

- DAVID MADDOX

Tory MPs will hold meetings this week to discuss how to remove their leader, Kemi Badenoch, as panic grows over the future of the party following Reform’s success in the local elections.

Two senior backbenchers have confirmed to The Independent that they are calling meetings with fellow parliamentarians to discuss ousting the Conservative Party leader. “We cannot continue as we are and she [Ms Badenoch] is just not up to the task,” one of the MPs said.

The moves come after the Tories lost 15 councils and 674 seats last week in devastating results which put the future of the party at risk. At the same time, Nigel Farage declared his party has now taken the place of the Conservatives as the main opposition to Labour as it won 676 seats and overall control of 10 councils.

One Conservative MP said: “These results were actually worse than last year’s general election. We have somehow gone backwards.”

It is understood that a number of Tories have also contacted Robert Jenrick to stand again for the leadership just six months after he failed in his first attempt. There are claims that former foreign secretary Sir James Cleverly is also positioning himself for a potential leadership contest as a centrist alternative to the right-wing Mr Jenrick.