Top Tories plead for Kemi Badenoch to be given more time as 'deluded' MPs 'plot to oust her' after local elections meltdown saw party lose 600 seats
Miserable Tory MPs were today warned they are 'deluded' if they think that replacing Kemi Badenoch will help the party, amid rumours of a leadership challenge.
Backbenchers are reportedly to meet this week to discuss Mrs Badenoch's future after the Conservatives lost more than 600 seats in last week's local elections.
The party is currently languishing third in most opinion polls behind Labour and Reform, the latter of which took a massive chunk out of the Tories' council base on Thursday.
Mrs Badenoch has only been in charge for six months, following the party's hammering at the general election last year, which followed a period where it had three leaders in the space of two years.
But some MPs are reportedly unhappy that the part seems to be going 'backwards'.
However, writing in the Express, former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith warned that 'Conservative voters haven't forgotten' the state of the party when it was in power.
'To those few Conservatives now briefing journalists that another leadership election is the answer I say, if after four leadership elections and utter disarray amongst MP's over the last five years, another leadership election is what they believe the public voted for, then they are deluded,' he added.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith said Tory MPs considering toppling Mrs Badenoch were 'deluuded'
Writing in the Express , former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith warned that 'Conservative voters haven't forgotten'.
'This election result was frankly the second significant tremor after the first devastating political earthquake last year.
'It underscored the level of anger too many Conservative voters still had for our mistakes and failures.
'Not to mention the terrible behaviour of too many Conservative MPs at times appearing to care more for their careers than the lives of those they were sent to serve.'
The Independent reported that MPs will this week discuss the party leadership.
One told the website: 'We cannot continue as we are and she is just not up to the task.'
Both Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch are under pressure to reverse their parties’ fortunes after Reform picked up 10 councils and more than 600 seats in Thursday’s poll.
Squeezed between Reform and the Liberal Democrats, the Tories lost more than 600 councillors and all 15 of the councils it controlled going into the election, among the worst results in the party’s history.
At the weekend, Mrs Badenoch said she understands why voters are 'angry' with the Conservatives and she must 'come up with a plan that will deliver', adding that it will be a 'slow and steady' effort for her party to regain support.
Conservative co-chairman Nigel Huddleston sought to play down the threat from Reform UK, telling Sky News: 'When they're in a position of delivering things, that's when the shine comes off.'
Both Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch are under pressure to reverse their parties’ fortunes after Reform picked up 10 councils and more than 600 seats in Thursday’s poll.
Mrs Badenoch has only been in charge for six months, following the party's hammering at the general election last year, which followed a period where it had three leaders in the space of two years.
