Kemi Badenoch Says Conservatives Are Coming Back After Winning Westminster Council From Labour

Kemi Badenoch claimed the Conservatives are “coming back” after winning back Westminster council from Labour in London, even as her party suffered significant losses across England in Thursday’s elections.

“- Published The Conservatives have suffered heavy losses in elections across the UK, with both Reform and the Liberal Democrats taking votes off Kemi Badenoch's party”

BBC

The Guardian said the Tories lost 41 seats in Essex where Reform gained 52, held on to Harlow by securing all 11 district council seats available, and were wiped out in Havering where Reform made up 39 of Havering’s 55 councillors.

BBC

In the same election cycle, the BBC reported that the Conservatives managed to take Westminster council from Labour and that Badenoch insisted there are grounds for optimism, saying “good strategy takes time”.

The BBC also reported that there is “no hint of leadership speculation” surrounding Badenoch despite heavy Conservative losses in England, Scotland and Wales, with counting in Scotland still ongoing and the BBC projecting the Conservatives could finish fifth with 13 or 14 seats.

The Guardian described a string of Conservative setbacks beyond Essex, including losing control of Suffolk county council to Reform, making gains in Brentwood and North East Lincolnshire, and losing control of the council in Hampshire for the first time since 1997.

It also said Reform increased its number of seats from one to a majority of 27 in Staffordshire’s Newcastle-under-Lyme borough council, while Badenoch’s party fell from 26 seats to 15.

Colchester Gazette

The Colchester Gazette reported that Badenoch said she was “very proud” of Conservative results even as Reform unseated them in her own local authority, after Reform UK claimed victory from the Conservatives in Essex County Council.

The Colchester Gazette added that the result ended 25 years of Conservative control in the county, which had run the council since 2001, and quoted Badenoch saying “I said that we were going to rebuild after our worst defeat ever and we can see those signs of renewal everywhere that we are standing.”

The Guardian quoted Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative MP for Harwich and North Essex, calling heavy Tory losses in the county “mortifying” after Reform took control of Essex county council and ended the Conservatives’ 25-year reign at the local authority.

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Financial Times

Jenkin told the paper it would be “interesting to see how Reform actually run Essex,” and he added that in Kent, where Reform won outright control last year, the Conservative vote had recovered.

The BBC framed the immediate political stakes by reporting that there is no hint of leadership speculation around Badenoch, pointing instead to her performances in Parliament and to a “stark lack of alternatives” after Robert Jenrick defected to Reform UK.

The BBC also said the Conservatives could not easily spin the results as anything other than “a massive disappointment,” but it concluded that “Badenoch appears much safer in her role than Sir Keir Starmer.”