Twenty Conservative councillors have defected to Reform this morning – on the Tories’ third day of their conference.
This is on top of eight Tory councillors moving to Nigel Farage’s party since March this year, including notable defector Keith Prince, a member of the London Assembly who was a Tory party member for nearly 50 years and switched last week.
Seven more Tory councillors defected last year, and one in 2023.
Leader Kemi Badenoch defended her record amid Tuesday morning’s defections, saying the Conservative Party is “shedding a lot of the baggage of the last 14 years”.
She told ITV: “Just last year, we had MPs jumping to Labour because Labour was doing well in the polls. They’re not doing so well now.
“There are some people who will leave because all they want to do is win elections. They don’t know what they’re winning the elections for.”
Ms Badenoch also said her party is having a “very good conference” as questions about her leadership swirl around the annual autumn conference, which started on Sunday and ends on Wednesday with a speech by the leader.
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Following the slew of defections on Tuesday morning, shadow home secretary Chris Philp gave a speech to a poorly attended conference hall about the Tories’ plan to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
The previous day saw an exclusive Sky News poll of Tory members by YouGov finding half of them think Ms Badenoch should not lead the party into the next election.
While 50% of Tory members think she should not remain, 46% think she should stay in place until 2029.
A total of 49% think she will be out before the election, compared with 47% who think she’ll still be in place.
Asked who they would prefer as leader of the Conservative Party, 46% of Tory members picked Robert Jenrick, comfortably ahead of the 39% who said Ms Badenoch. In all, 11% said neither and 4% don’t know.
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