Badenoch: Tories will do a ‘bit better' than wipeout at local elections

Telegraph

20-03-2025

The Conservatives are aiming to do 'bit better' than a local election wipe-out, Kemi Badenoch has said.
In an attempt to manage expectations ahead of polling day on May 1, the Tory leader said she expects this year's contest to be 'extremely difficult' for her party.
She urged disgruntled voters not to treat it as a 'protest vote' amid the threat from Reform UK, warning: 'This is not show-business. This is not a game.'
It comes after she dismissed Nigel Farage as a reality TV star in an interview with The Telegraph, insisting that government is not an episode of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here.
The council seats up for grabs at the local elections in May were last contested in 2021, when Boris Johnson achieved sweeping success.
The victories have been attributed in part to the successful rollout of the Covid jab by the Tory government, delivering a so-called 'vaccine bounce'.
Launching her party's local election campaign on Thursday, Mrs Badenoch admitted that she expects the Conservatives to suffer losses when voters return to the polls this year.
She said the Tories would lose 'almost every single' council 'like we won in 2021' if the party's devastating results at last year's general election were mapped onto the seats on offer in May.
Echoing words of warning from Nigel Huddleston, the party's co-chairman, she told supporters in Beaconsfield: 'The last time we fought these local elections was four years ago. As Nigel said, in 2021 we were riding high during the vaccine bounce.
'This year will be different. It will be the first time since the general election, the greatest defeat in our party's history, that we fight these seats. And if you match that general election result of 2024 onto this coming May, then we don't win the councils like we won in 2021, we lose almost every single one.
'But I think we're going to do a bit better than that, but we know that these elections will be extremely difficult, but we also know why they matter.'
Earlier, Mr Huddleston said: 'Let's be realistic. We are coming off an exceptionally high watermark. Back in 2021 we got 65 per cent win rate. We won 65 per cent of the seats that were up for election. That is unprecedented. It's about 30 per cent higher than we would normally get.'
The dangers of 'protest voting'
Challenged on the threat posed by Reform, Mrs Badenoch warned voters against treating the local elections as a 'protest vote'.
But she admitted the Tories 'do have a challenge on the Right', adding: 'We need to spend this time rebuilding trust. The public are shocked not by the fact that we're not doing well, but the Labour Government isn't doing well, and so the protest votes are going to Reform.
'But at the end of the day, this is not a protest vote. These are local elections. People are voting for who is going to get rid of their bins and their waste and their rubbish.'
Asked to set out the ideological differences between the Tories and Reform, she said: 'We don't just make announcements. We have a plan. Loads of other parties just tell people what they think they want to hear. We think through and make sure that we are providing a credible plan that can be delivered.'
She added: 'This is not show-business. This is not a game. This is about people's lives. This is not for us. It is for all those people out there who need credible politicians.'
Last week, The Telegraph revealed that Mr Farage's party is set to win control of, or be the largest party on, eight councils compared with the Conservatives' 10, according to the first major survey to predict the vote on May 1.
It showed for the first time how support for Reform has grown since the general election, with the party set to upend the political status quo at the local elections.
Initially, some 21 county councils were set to hold elections on May 1. However, some of the ballots have been delayed by Angela Rayner's local government reforms, which is expected to put a dent in Mr Farage's success.