Robert Jenrick has backed Kemi Badenoch as Tory leader despite fresh polling suggesting party members do not want her to carry on into the next election.
The shadow justice secretary, who ran against Ms Badenoch for the leadership, said he believed she was the “right person” for the job.
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It comes after polling by YouGov shared with Sky News found that half of all Conservative members do not want Ms Badenoch to lead the party into the next election.
And asked who they would prefer as leader of the Conservative Party, 46% of Tory members picked Mr Jenrick, comfortably ahead of the 39% who said Ms Badenoch.
Asked about the polling by Kamali Melbourne on Breakfast, Mr Jenrick said: “Now look, Kemi is our leader.
“We had a leadership contest a year ago that was settled and I’m fully supporting her.
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“I wouldn’t be serving in the shadow cabinet if I didn’t think that she was the right person to be leading our party and ultimately our country forward in the years ahead.”
This morning, Ms Badenoch faced her own questions about leadership and whether she can fend off the threat of Nigel Farage and Reform UK.
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Ms Badenoch has rejected any kind of electoral pact with Reform UK at the next election, but the poll showed that 64% of the Tory members polled supported an electoral pact, and almost half – 46% – would support a full-blown merger with Reform UK.
On Tuesday, the third day of the Tory party conference in Manchester, 12 Conservative councillors announced they were defecting to Reform.
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Speaking to Times Radio, Ms Badenoch said she believed she was the “right person” to lead the Conservative Party.
“We need to turn our country around, and we’re the only party that can deliver that stronger economy and stronger borders that this conference is about,” she said.
“If I thought someone else could do it, then I’d be taking a step back. I think that I’m the right person and I’m the best person.”
The Tory leader said she was “making a sacrifice” by not seeing her children “as much as I would like” because “this job is really important”.
On the defections of the Tory councillors, Ms Badenoch told LBC: “What we are doing is shedding a lot of the baggage of the last 14 years.
“We need people who are in our party for the right reasons.”
