'My job is to make sure Farage does not become PM because he does not have the answers'

KEMI Badenoch insisted the Conservatives are "down, but not out" as she vowed to strike back from heavy election losses.

- Martyn Brown

The Tory leader promised her party would "come out fighting" after losing 674 council seats and control of 16 authorities.

It came on the back of last summer's general election pummelling which ultimately led to her replacing Rishi Sunak.

Despite growing backbench unrest, Mrs Badenoch cautioned against a knee-jerk response, saying the party's issues were "not going to be fixed after six months" of her leadership.

Speaking to the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, she said: "Reform had a good night. We had a bad night. And what this shows for a lot of people who hoped that just changing leader again would fix everything is that that's not going to be enough.

"We tried that previously. And that brought us to a historic defeat." Mrs Badenoch argued her party was working on a "slow and steady" plan to return to government by the end of the decade.

She added: "We are going to come out with the policies that people want to see, but what we are not going to do is rush out and tell the public things that are not true just so we can win votes.