“We lose almost every single one.”
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is being brutally mocked after launching her party’s local election campaign, in which she set out a series of excuses as to why they’re going to do terribly in them.
On Thursday 1 May 2025, local and mayoral elections will take place in many parts of England. The polls are viewed as a key test for Badenoch and are her first electoral test since she became Tory leader, following her party’s defeat in last year’s general election.
Speaking from the Conservative safe seat of Buckingham, the party leader admitted they were going to have a “difficult” time when voters go to the polls.
Badenoch sought to manage expectations as she told those gathered that the party’s popularity was high when the same council seats were last up for grabs four years ago, due to the vaccine bounce but that this year will be different due to it being the first time since the general election, ‘the greatest defeat in our party’s history’.
She said: “And if you mapped 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 these elections will be extremely difficult.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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