Kemi Badenoch has privately admitted the Tories have hit “rock bottom” while speaking at a Westminster Gala Dinner, a leaked recording obtained by The London Economic reveals.
The Conservative leader told party donors, activists, and senior officials returning to parliament after last year’s election defeat felt worse than New Labour’s victory in 1997, claiming Britain is witnessing the “most left-wing parliament we have ever had”.
Badenoch said she has begun to “realise just how much our country needs us right now,” despite the frontbench recently accepting an array of mistakes during their 14 years in power.
The leak comes amid growing unease among top Tories about the party’s future under Badenoch’s leadership, with fears the cabinet reshuffle has done little to shift its direction or improve public standing.
Several current MPs are in talks with Reform UK and senior officials have put some on “defection watch”.
Recent opinion polls put the Conservatives on 17 per cent – a whopping 13 points behind Nigel Farage’s party.
Talking at the central London event last month, she said: “I thought 1997 was going to be rock bottom, and imagine how we all felt going back into Westminster, just 120 Conservative MPs. In what is the most left-wing parliament we have ever had.”
Badenoch also acknowledged Labour was only one of many barriers to her party’s unpopularity.
“It is not just the 400 plus Labour MPs, it’s the 70 Liberal Democrats who are well to the left of Labour. We have some people from Reform behind us, but we’ve got Greens and the SNP too.”
She added: “There is no point in pretending that the job we have ahead of us is going to be easy. It is not.
“Everyone here knows that last year we had a historic defeat. We went down to the fewest number of MPs we’ve ever had.”
“I see so many great leaders, former leaders of Westminster council, and I realise just how much our country needs us right now,” Badenoch concluded.
Many current Tory MPs are “seriously considering” defecting to Nigel Farage’s party, according to former cabinet minister David Jones who recently made the switch.
It follows a wave of deflections from Jake Berry and Andrea Jenkyns, now the mayor of Greater Lincolnshire.
Earlier this month, Kemi Badenoch was accused of “deckchair shuffling” by shaking up her shadow cabinet, which saw James Cleverly return to the frontbench in a bid to bring greater awareness to the “mission of renewal”.
But Conservatives have fumed it is “just a dud” that will make no real difference.
One official said: “Somehow we’ve had a reshuffle that is the continuity of the last government. Not a fresh, confident look.”
One MP added: “We are still hitting 15-18 points in the polls and this is what we go for? It is just lacking. Just a dud.”
The consequences of Kemi Badenoch’s leaked admission could potentially create further rifts away from her already fragile leadership. With growing defections, disillusionment over direction, and polling numbers in steady decline, it risks accelerating fragmentation within the party.