Badenoch warns Tories of difficult local elections

Kemi Badenoch has warned Conservatives they face "extremely difficult" local elections, as she launched her party's campaign for the polls.

She spoke to activists in Buckinghamshire ahead of elections to 24 of England's 317 councils and mayoral authorities on 1 May.

In a speech, the Conservative leader promised "lower taxes and better services" if voters backed her party but admitted the elections would be "tough".

The polls are Badenoch's first electoral test since she became Tory leader, following her party's defeat in last year's general election.

In some areas, local elections have been delayed until next year while councils are reorganised.

In her speech on Thursday, Badenoch struck a gloomy tone in her opening remarks, telling activists the results would "be different this year".

"It will be the first time since the general election - the greatest defeat in our party's history - that we fight these seats," Badenoch said.

"If you map that general election result of 2024 onto this coming May, then we don't win the councils we won in 2021, we lose almost every single one."

While she said the party would probably "do a bit better than that", Badenoch stressed the elections "will be extremely difficult".

The last time these council seats were contested the elections fell during the pandemic in 2021, just after the vaccine rollout, when Boris Johnson was prime minister.

The Conservatives are defending the majority of seats and may find it hard to replicate that result, given the party's current opinion poll ratings.

Nationally Badenoch's party is polling below Reform UK, which is confident its candidates can take many seats from the Conservatives in these elections.

Reform UK challenge

When asked by a reporter if she was worried about Nigel Farage's party, Badenoch said the Conservatives "do have a challenge on the right".

She said these local elections were not "protest votes" and argued no party was better at running public services than the Conservatives.

When asked about the policy differences between the Tories and Farage's Reform UK, Badenoch said her party "don't just make announcements, we have a plan".

"This is not showbusiness," Badenoch said.

"This is not a game. This is about people's lives. This is not for us. It is for all those people out there who need credible politicians. That is what we're offering."

Earlier, Conservative MP and party co-chairman Nigel Huddleston told the BBC council tax reform was an area of "major concern" for future policy.

The party is undertaking a review of its policies and Huddleston said the Conservatives would "look at every single area of government".

Ahead of local election campaigns getting under way, Huddleston managed expectations, saying: "We are under no illusions that this set of elections will be difficult, but we will be fighting."

About 1,650 seats will be contested on 14 county councils, eight unitary authorities, one metropolitan district, and in the the Isles of Scilly.

There will also be mayoral elections in the West of England, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and - for the first time - in Hull and East Yorkshire and Greater Lincolnshire.

Elections to all 21 county councils in England were due to take place.

But last month, the government announced elections would be postponed in nine areas, where the councils are undertaking reorganisation and devolution.

Those areas are Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Thurrock, Surrey, East and West Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.