This year’s local elections will be “quite difficult” for the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch has said.
The Conservative leader has predicted that this year’s vote will be “very bad” for the Tories compared to votes four years ago.
The comments were made in an interview with The Times in which Mrs Badenoch also discussed Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, and her belief that the European Convention on Human Rights is not “the only problem” when it comes to immigration policy.
“These local elections will be quite difficult for us as a party,” she told the newspaper.
“If you compare to where we were four years ago it was a record high. So compared with that it will be very bad.”
The Conservatives lost seats to Labour, Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats at last year’s general election.
Nigel Farage’s Reform have improved their position in the polls since then.
She suggested that Reform is “a party that is out to destroy” the Conservatives, and on whether she is worried about the rise of Reform, Mrs Badenoch told the newspaper: “We are in a very, very competitive political environment.
“What those numbers show me is that the Conservative Party has a job to do in making sure that people understand what we stand for and that our values are the values of the British people.”
Mrs Badenoch has made clear that she will take time before making any major policy announcements.
In a speech on Thursday she acknowledged that her party had made mistakes in recent years over initiating Brexit under the leadership of Boris Johnson and Theresa May, as well as on immigration
She told a central London audience of Conservative members and journalists: “We were making announcements without proper plans. We announced that we would leave the European Union before we had a plan for growth outside the EU.”
She added: “We announced year after year that we would lower immigration, but despite our efforts, immigration kept going up.”
Immigration and Britain’s membership of the ECHR was much-discussed during last year’s Conservative leadership contest, but Mrs Badenoch told The Times: “Saying we should leave the ECHR is not a policy, it’s an announcement.
“It would have ramifications across the board because it’s been integrated into our common law.
“How would we make sure that we don’t accidentally unpick things?”
She added: “I don’t think the ECHR is the only problem.
“There are other countries in the ECHR who are able to do things we are not.”
On immigration, and making comparisons to the Swedish system, Mrs Badenoch suggested that citizenship tests have “got to be about how you’re going to contribute to a country, wanting it to succeed.
“I tell people that assimilation should be the target and integration should be the next best thing.”
She also said there should be “better references from communities”.
“We need everybody to step up and be a part of making sure our society is strong. That’s what used to happen. It was a lot easier.”
The interview comes after Mrs Badenoch drew criticism after suggesting she would look at means testing when asked about the future of the triple lock, which is aimed at preventing the state pension’s worth from being eaten away by inflation and other cost pressures.
She said that the Conservative policy on the issue “has not changed” but that “people should ask questions, we will look at it”.
