Why time matters for Tory MPs deciding Kemi Badenoch's future

5 hours ago Share Save Matt Chorley 5 Live presenter Share Save

PA Media

Louis Armstrong had all of it in the world. The Beautiful South needed a little more. For Kemi Badenoch, and her 118 MPs, time is also on their minds. The Conservative leader believes she needs more time, to turn around her party from its historic drubbing in last year's general election. Yet as time's gone on, she's gone further down in the polls. "I didn't say it would be easy," she told Tory members on Sunday. "And I didn't say it would be quick." For her MPs - and I've contacted almost all of them for my BBC Radio 5 Live show via text and WhatsApp over the last few days - time is of the essence, and for some, it is already running out.

Around one in three Tory MPs responded to my questions about the mood of the party, and the pressure Badenoch is under. They break down roughly into two camps. In the first are those who think the next election is a considerable way off and want Badenoch to be given space to try to repair damage not all of her own making. The mood, they insist, is better than much of the media speculation. "Chipper", even. They take comfort from Labour's own woes and leadership speculation, and cling to a belief that Reform UK's populist policies increasingly do not survive contact with reality.