Plans to oust Kemi Badenoch ramp up after heavy local election defeats
A shock poll has revealed that Boris Johnson could be the Tories’ only chance to defeat Reform UK in the next general election.
According to a survey by More in Common, 60% of Conservative supporters and 50% of Reform voters back a Johnson comeback.
Additionally, 43% of voters believe Johnson would be more likely to win the election than Kemi Badenoch.
In hypothetical polling, Johnson boosts the Conservative vote by five points (from 21% to 26%) while cutting the Reform vote by six points (to 23%).
Polling shows that swapping Badenoch for Robert Jenrick, who is widely seen as positioning himself for the leadership, would actually reduce the Conservative vote by one point, down to 20%.
This comes after a disastrous set of local election results for Badenoch’s party, who lost 674 council seats and all 18 councils they had held since 2021. Badenoch has said she is “confident” she will lead the Tories to the next election despite these losses.
But the idea that Johnson could be the Tories’ saviour overlooks his shocking record.
This is the same Boris Johnson who promised £350 million per week for the NHS during the Brexit campaign, vowed to ‘Get Brexit Done’ even at the cost of a no-deal Brexit, and presided over 30,000 excess deaths in care homes during the pandemic.
And let’s not forget Partygate.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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