Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch was confronted on live radio by a former Tory voter and LBC caller who hit out at the Conservatives’ ’14 years of betrayal’
Kemi Badenoch was confronted on live radio by a former Tory voter who hit out at the Conservatives’ “14 years of betrayal”.
The Tory leader scrambled to defend her leadership after her party was fiercely attacked at the start of an hour-long phone-in on LBC radio. She said she was trying to “rebuild trust” after caller Daniel asked why he should “ever trust your party again and ever help you get into power again”.
But Daniel, who has now switched to Reform, said he wasn’t convinced by Ms Badenoch’s defence, telling her he didn’t leave the Tory party but it left him. He added: “I was out knocking on doors, canvassing. I put thousands of hours in to help you, and all I got back was betrayal. I got tax rise after tax rise after tax rise. I got just one thing after another, and it’s too late.”
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Ms Badenoch insisted it wasn’t too late but added: “I’m really sorry you feel that way.” She continued: “I’m one of the people who was fighting for things you asked for… I know that a lot of people are very disillusioned, but it’s not just words that’s going to convince people. It’s also got to be actions.”
She was also asked why she won’t send Robert Jenrick “off packing to join Reform” after a leaked recording revealed he may push to join forces with Nigel Farage’s party. Ms Badenoch defended Mr Jenrick, who has since publicly ruled out a pact with Reform, and said he was saying that he wants to unite a “coalition of voters that used to vote Conservative”.
Ms Badenoch, who has been on the local elections campaign trail today, has been attempting to put on a brave face as she braces for an electoral wipeout at the ballot box.
The Tory leader faces losing hundreds of councillors when voters head to the polls on Thursday in local elections across the country. Many of the 1,600 seats up for grabs were last contested in 2021 when ex-PM Boris Johnson was benefiting from a Covid “vaccine bounce” in the polls.
Pressed on how “nervous” she was feeling ahead of her first major electoral test, the Conservative chief told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I know it’s going to be a challenge.” She added: “We’re still in the aftermath of our worst defeat ever. Last year we suffered a historic defeat and we need to rebuild trust with the public.”
Ms Badenoch has struggled to turn around her party’s dire position in the polls since winning the Tory crown last autumn. Recent polls have shown the Conservatives being leapfrogged by Mr Farage’s right-wing Reform UK.
Given the Conservatives’ dire record in office, Ms Badenoch also insisted the vote on Thursday “is not a referendum on national issues, but local ones”. And she said her party needs to “fight for every single vote” and “remind people about our record and how well we have done at local government level”.
The Tory leader said: “I’ve been travelling all around the country, and one of the councillors I was with, we were on a doorstep, and he showed a leaflet of Reform, saying ‘we’re going to stop the boats’. That’s not what people are voting on on Thursday.”
Ms Badenoch also claimed the elections this week are not about issues such as immigration – but on who is going to fix the roads or collect the bins.
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