Badenoch now has awesome responsibility - MP

A Worcestershire MP has said new Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, has "awesome responsibility" for leading the government opposition.

Nigel Huddleston said he believes the Tories will be able to tempt voters to return to the party, after losing power in July.

Badenoch was announced as the new leader of the Tory party on Saturday, having secured 56% of a member's vote against Robert Jenrick.

Huddleston, Tory MP for Droitwich and Evesham, said: "Kemi has said we want to reach out to people across the political spectrum."

In her victory speech, Badenoch said it was time for her party to "tell the truth" to voters, in order to win back those people who deserted it at the general election, in July.

Despite her pledge to reach people across the political landscape Huddleston, who is the first MP for the newly formed constituency, said he did not think she would look to agree a deal with Reform UK.

"Reform is a force to be reckoned with, but I think when we focus on the core values and have a proposition and show that we deserve to win the election again, we will be able to get not only Reform voters back, but will also take votes from Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens and elsewhere.

"It's also about character and leadership."

Speaking about Badenoch's first priorities as leader, Huddleston said the party needs to focus on "core values".

"I think what we're going to do is focus on what it means to be a Conservative and develop policies accordingly, because she's got an awesome responsibility now," he said.

"We've got to hold this government to account, but also we've got to prepare for government ourselves and we’ll do that over the next few years."