Turning around Tory fortunes will take time, says leader

Kemi Badenoch took over as Conservative leader 11 months ago

The leader of the Conservative Party has said she cannot turn her party's fortunes around "overnight".

Kemi Badenoch's party suffered a humiliating defeat in the general election, losing all of its seats in Wales, and polls suggest the party is in fourth place for the next Welsh Parliament election.

She said there will be "bumps along the way" and it will take "time to win back public trust".

Speaking to BBC Wales, ahead of her party's conference, Badenoch said the Tories were "making sure that we've got a credible set of policies".

"We're not a one man band, we're a strong team," she said.

"We're also the ones who understand how a lot of this stuff works. We've got that competence to think through plans so they don't fall apart like Reform's plans do once anyone starts asking questions."

Shortly after the interview was conducted it was announced that former Welsh Tory MP Sarah Atherton had joined Reform.

Badenoch said: "The last oppositions were 14 years, 13 years, 18 years.

"This is not something that we're going to do overnight. They're going to be bumps along the way.

"But if you give up, because there are bumps, then you don't deserve to be in government."

Asked if she could turn it around by the May election in Wales, she added: "We have been in difficult places before and we have come back from them and we will do it again."

The party has faced questions as to whether it would support a Reform or Plaid-led Welsh government, should Nigel Farage's party win the election. Badenoch and the Senedd's Conservative leader, Darren Millar, have not ruled it out.

Badenoch told BBC Wales she had a "long conversation" with Millar about what might happen after the election at the last Welsh conference in May.

She again would not be drawn on whether her party would work with Reform.

"He and I both believe that now is not the time to be talking about working with other parties," she said.

"Now is the time for people to know what we stand for. If people don't know what we stand for, then we're not going to get those votes."

Pressed on whether she was open to working with Reform, she added: "I'm not discussing it at all, because the minute you start ruling out or not ruling out, that becomes the discussion.

"We've talked about how we're going to reverse the mistakes that have been made around immigration, we've talked about how we're going to stop bankrupting the country with a net zero agenda that makes their bills so expensive, but is not making the environment better.

"We are talking about how we're going to make the economy a lot better, and there will be more at next week's conference."