Happy six months anniversary to Kemi Badenoch. Elected leader at the start of November, she today has to watch her party shed councillors at a rate of knots. Coming off the back of the ‘Boris bounce’ in 2021, it was always going to be a hard night for her – but even this will be a tough result for her supporters. Inevitably, Nigel Farage was on hand to stick the knife into his Tory rival. At the Runcorn count, he was asked by Sky’s Jon Craig what was his message to Badenoch. He replied:
Kemi Badenoch – please stay. I mean please don’t resign, we want you to stay on as leader, I’ll put some money in if you like to keep you there. No she’s got an impossible job the Conservative Party is split and what you’ll see tomorrow as the West Country results come in is you’ll see a stack of 2021 Conservative votes will have come to us but also gone to the Liberal Democrats as well – the Conservatives are standing in the middle of the road in terms of their own supporters and getting hit by vehicles coming both ways.
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