Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch faces an “inevitable” leadership challenge with November the most likely time for Conservative MPs to try to remove her, insiders say. Three candidates have been named as the most likely replacements. They are Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick, Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Conservative MPs are desperately worried after the party lost 674 council seats, two thirds of the seats it was defending, in May 1 local elections. Rival party Reform enjoyed a remarkable victory and won 677 council seats, as well as the Runcorn and Helsby by-election. One opinion poll has placed the Tories in fourth place – behind Reform, Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
It’s led some Conservative MPs to conclude that they need to act quickly to appoint a new leader, although others fear that another round of in-fighting will remind voters why they grew so sick of the Tories during the last government.
Under party rules, a formal challenge cannot be made to Ms Badenoch until 12 months after she first became leader. That means it could take place in November 2025.
But other options are also being considered according to the Sunday Times. They include an open letter to the media signed by MPs calling for Badenoch to go, or mass resignations by members of the shadow cabinet.
Mr Jenrick, who stood in the Tory leadership contest last year, is seen as the favourite to replace her but Ms Trott is seen to have done well with the education brief.
Mr Johnson is still seen as someone who can appeal to red wall voters currently backing Reform, but he has many enemies within the party.
Over the weekend Mr Johnson’s former spokesman Guto Harri predicted a leadership challenge would take place. He said: “I think we inevitably are heading for another leadership challenge. And the danger there is that the party makes the wrong decision again and chooses somebody like Robert Jenrick, who’s a pale imitation of what Kemi Badenoch is trying to be a pale imitation of, which is, you know, Nigel Farage and reform.
“So if that is the trap that the party is caught in, then it’s a real disaster.”
But he told Times Radio it would be hard for Mr Johnson to make a comeback.
“The honest answer for me is I think if we had a directly elected presidency, and you could appeal to people over the heads of, you know, the Conservative Party, frankly, then Boris would be plotting a return.
“But that is not how our system works. And the relationship between him and the Conservative Party broke down in a really nasty, severe, I think, irretrievable way.”
Former Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove defended Ms Badenoch. He said: “I think that Kemi’s instincts on almost every issue are right. I think that on all of these sort of big cultural questions, everything from what is a woman to the grooming gangs scandal, things where the Labour Party have fought shy of telling the truth and have been incapable of providing a lead. She has shown a courage that very few other people in British politics have.”
