Kemi Badenoch has apologised to Tory councillors who lost their seats after the party faced major losses in the local elections.
The Conservative leader said she knew it was “disappointing” and that she was “sincerely sorry”, but added: “We are going to win those seats back – that is my job now.”
By early evening on Friday, the Tories had lost overall control of 15 of the 18 councils up for election they were in charge of before, with three yet to declare.
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Another four councils holding elections but yet to declare had no overall control by a single party, and one had been under Labour control.
Reform gained six councils from the Tories and one that had no overall control previously, while the Lib Dems won Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire – both of which had no overall control before – and Shropshire from the Tories.
The Conservatives had one win, with Paul Bristow being voted in as Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mayor, previously held by Labour.
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Addressing the Conservative’s abysmal results, Ms Badenoch said: “Other parties may be winning now, but we are going to show that we can deliver and that we are on course and recovering.”
She added that Labour did not win any seats – by that point in the day – because people were “angry about winter fuel payments…about the jobs tax”.
“But they are still not yet ready to trust us,” she added.
“We have a big job to do to rebuild trust with the public.
“That’s the job that the Conservative Party has given me, and I’m going to make sure that we get ourselves back to the place where we are seen as being a credible alternative to Labour.”
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Ms Badenoch said Labour’s election results showed Sir Keir Starmer “is on course to be a one-term prime minister”.
However, when asked if she would still be leader at the next general election, Ms Badenoch dodged the question and said: “I’m not playing, all these questions that the media loves to ask about my future.
“This is not about me.”
She insisted she was the right person to lead the Conservatives, as she was chosen by the party’s members.
“I told them it wouldn’t be easy, I told them it would require a renewal and rebuilding of our party,” she said.
“That doesn’t happen in six months. I’m trying to do something that no one has ever done before, which is take their party from such a historic defeat back into government in one term.”
