Ex-Tory council leader calls for Badenoch to resign

A council leader who has stepped down said he will be calling for Kemi Badenoch to quit as head of the Tory party after “terrible” local election results.

Former North Northamptonshire Council leader Jason Smithers was angered after the Conservatives lost 37 seats there and 35 in neighbouring West Northamptonshire as Reform UK took control of both unitary authorities.

“I can’t see how a leader of a party can stay on with such terrible results across the country,” said Smithers.

Badenoch has apologised to defeated Conservative councillors, promising to make the party “a credible alternative to Labour”.

Smithers, who chose not to seek re-election after stepping down to focus more on his family, spoke to the BBC Politics East programme at the Kettering count.

“I am on a call next week with the leader of the Conservative Party and I will be putting it to her that she should be resigning,” he said.

“She has not helped in these elections; she has not once come forward and helped at all.

“I am in absolute fear the Conservative Party will implode unless we get a good Conservative who can rally the troops and bring us back to some type of party that is going to challenge.”

Smithers had led North Northamptonshire Council since its formation in 2021.

Northamptonshire has been seen as the beating heart of the Conservative Party for years.

It held most of the county’s Westminster seats until last year and dominated the local councils.

So the local party has been reeling following these results.

During the local election campaign, Badenoch visited Northamptonshire.

The leader of the opposition was filmed at a timber merchants in West Northamptonshire, criticising the increase in National Insurance for small businesses.

On Friday, following this week’s election results – which saw the party lose 674 seats nationally – she visited Peterborough to congratulate Paul Bristow, the newly elected Mayor of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

She made it clear there she intended to remain as leader.

“We have a big job to do to rebuild trust with the public,” said Badenoch, who is MP for North West Essex.

“That is the job the Conservative Party has given me and I intend to get us back to a place where we are seen as the credible alternative to Labour.”

Politics East is on BBC One on Sundays at 10:00 BST, and on the BBC iPlayer.