‘You don’t know that if I had rushed out all of those things right at the beginning that we would be doing well’
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch had a meltdown ahead of her party’s conference, after hitting back at Laura Kuenssberg over the Tories’ poor performance in the polls, telling the presenter ‘you have no idea’.
It comes as questions are raised over Badenoch’s future as leader of her party, amid a collapse in poll ratings and reports that allies of Robert Jenrick are collecting no confidence letters, calling for her to quit.
According to YouGov research from mid-September, just 16% of the public said they would be willing to vote Conservative, with the Tories now increasingly viewed as irrelevant.
Kuenssberg asked Badenoch about the dire state of her party’s poll ratings, telling the Tory leader: “While you have been working out exactly what you wanted to do, the Conservative Party’s position – which was already dreadful – has got worse –”
Badenoch interrupted: “Laura. Polls are not elections.
“If I had rushed out and said all those things right at the beginning, people would have said, ‘Why should we believe you? Why have you suddenly changed?’
“Simply saying something doesn’t mean you’re going to be fine in the polls.
“What you’re saying is a counterfactual. You don’t know that if I had rushed out all of those things right at the beginning that we would be doing well. You have no idea.
“What I’m doing is being very consistent. I’m saying, vote for me, we will get through this, we’re going to have very clear credible plans, they’re not going to fall apart the minute someone asks a question like you get with Reform.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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