Badenoch did 'everything she could' during elections

Kemi Badenoch said she did "everything she could" to prevent the Conservatives' defeat in May's local elections

The Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she did "every single thing [she] could" during the local elections, which saw her party almost entirely wiped out on Kent County Council.

The May ballot saw the Conservatives lose 57 of the authority's 81 seats, with Reform UK winning 57. It was described as "apocalyptic" by the former Tory council leader.

Speaking to BBC South East ahead of her party's autumn conference in Manchester, Badenoch said the "historic defeat" was down to people looking to "protest parties" instead.

"My job right now is to show people the Conservative Party has changed, win back the public trust, and demonstrate that we're the only party that can deliver both a strong economy and strong borders," she said.

In September two former Sussex Conservative MPs quit the party to join Reform and the Tories lost their overall majority on Surrey County Council following two by-elections.

In response to the defection of former Crawley MP Henry Smith and former Lewes MP Maria Caulfield, she said: "There are some people who can't deal with tough times. Some people will jump wherever the wind is blowing."

When challenged on why her party was performing so poorly in what should be safe Tory territory, she said: "You cannot turn around a historic defeat over 200 years in six months.

"You need to make sure that you demonstrate change, it takes a lot longer than that, and that's what I'm doing."

The party is promising policy announcements to tackle the flow of illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel

The Conservative leader said announcements about a new immigration plan would be made at the conference, and criticised Labour for scrapping the previous government's plan to deport migrants who arrive in the UK illegally to the African country Rwanda.

"They scrapped a plan which would have worked, they said they'd smash the gangs," she said. "Instead we're seeing small boat crossings increased by 40%.

"Nigel Farage's plans fell apart the minute he was asked questions about them. Labour's one in one out to France, how's that going?

"One hundred people in, one out, it's already mired in the legal quagmire.

"We're the only party that knows how to get this done and we're a strong team, not a one-man band."