Kemi Badenoch may only be four months into her leadership, but already Westminster is talking about her successor. Nigel Farage declared over the weekend that the Conservative party leader would be “lucky to survive past June”. Of course, he would say that. The Reform UK leader has a personal interest in Tory misfortune. But more concerning for Badenoch is that some in her own party are starting to ask if she’ll still be leader at the next election.
Her problems are piling up. The Tories regularly come third in national polls behind Reform and Labour. There is little money to go around (despite a spurt in Tory donations late last year) and redundancies at Conservative campaign headquarters (CCHQ) are seen as inevitable. Badenoch’s performances at prime minister’s questions are regularly criticised among Tory MPs for being too scatter-gun and missing open goals. The May local elections will be the first electoral test of her leadership – and CCHQ sources are attempting some serious expectation management as they warn of losses.
