3rd September 2025
* some of the content below was posted on my Twitter / X account during August/September 2025.
The last General Election (GE) in the UK was held on Thursday 4th July 2024, and won by the Labour Party, who are now the Party of Government.
The Labour Party Leader, Keir Starmer, is now Prime Minister of the UK.
FOR NOW.
Let’s remind ourselves of the scale of that win for Labour ?
Rishi Sunak, the previous Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party became LOTO, Leader of the Opposition, until a new Party Leader would be elected.
Kemi Badenoch became the new Conservative Party Leader and LOTO, and assumed these roles in early November 2024.
I am a conservative (small C), a lifelong Conservative voter and a Conservative Party Member.
I want a Conservative Government at the next GE.
The UK desperately needs a Conservative Government at the next GE.
Labour are destroying the UK.
The cult are grifters.
The Conservative Party are the best and only choice for the next Government of the UK.
That’s a given.
That said,I believe that the current trajectory for the Conservative Party will NOT bring about a Conservative Government at the next GE, and maybe even at the one after that.
And, the way things are going, Conservatives may not even be the official opposition.
So, in November 2024 the Conservatives selected a new Party Leader.
Personally I believed we selected the wrong Leader at that time.
But given the disaster of the 2024 GE a new Leader would need time to slow and stop the decline and turn things around.
So we then moved toward the local elections in 2025.
Surely this would at least start to show a ‘Badenoch Bounce’.
Well, NO it didn’t.
It got worse.
A lot worse.
The Conservatives
- lost 676 Council seats
- lost control of 16 councils
No Badenoch bounce, just more disaster.
Council Seats
Council Control
The cries, or whimpers, were heard … but but but …
Kemi Badenoch needs more time.
OK 🤷♂️
Let’s fast forward another 3 months and a recent voting intentions poll.
It’s getting worse, folks.
No bounce.
Firmly in reverse.
Now, it’s true that I am not a massive fan of polls.
As an example, I have NEVER been asked to take part in a poll.
And there are other polls.
None show significant or sustained improvement in Conservative performance and chances at the next GE.
Sorry to say.
My considered assessment at this time, having given Kemi Badenoch 10 months as LOTO is that …
- it’s just not working
- Kemi Badenoch is not working
We are not even stopping the decline let alone gaining.
Labour and Keir Starmer have been in power for nearly 14 months, at the time of writing.
And in that time,
- Labour have proved themselves to be the most disastrous Government that the UK has ever experienced.
- Keir Starmer has shown himself to be the worst Prime Minister the UK has ever had.
The performance of this Government is beyond belief.
In this time there has been MANY PMQ sessions.
With open goal after open goal every week, sadly Kemi Badenoch has failed to score any wins, other than perhaps a couple of times.
It’s just not good enough
Nowhere near good enough.
The Conservative Party should be making hay right now.
Sadly, the truth is far from this.
We could give Kemi more time, again.
But it won’t help.
We need to be bold and make a change at the top.
It’s time for Kemi Badenoch to go.
Now we can wait 1,2,3 years to change Leader.
That just delays what needs to be done and reduces the time a new Leader has to turn things around.
Or we could do it sooner.
Given the rules associated with the selection of Conservative Leaders, Kemi Badenoch is safe in her role as Conservative Leader until November 2025, the 1st anniversary of her selection into that role.
To move forward after that date, though, I would propose :
- Waiting to assess the performance of the current Conservative Party Leader / LOTO in the upcoming Conservative Party Conference in early October 2025.
- Waiting until the results of 2026 local Council elections, expected in early May 2026. If the Conservative Party lose a large number of seats, or lose control of more Councils, then that would confirm the need for a new Conservative Party Leader / LOTO
- A short selection process for a new Conservative Party Leader / LOTO (max 2/3 weeks) is undertaken to select a new Conservative Party Leader / LOTO. The final selection being made by Members as per normal Leadership elections.
It’s time to be bold.
The easiest thing would be to carry on as is.
Bury our head in the sand.
Hope for the best.
The fundamental question is -
Do the Conservative Party want to be the Government again ?
EVER.
My reply is a resounding YES.
So it’s time to take the bold actions to make that happen.
It’s easy to see the content of this blog as being negative towards the Conservative Party, maybe too negative.
I assure you, my assessment of the situation the Conservative Party finds itself in is nothing but positive.
Very positive.
We are the greatest, most effective and most successful political party in UK history.
We are the natural party of governance, of business, defence education, science & innovation and many other sectors.
An election fighting machine, albeit slightly humbled at present.
And we still have many great true blue Conservative MPs and ex-MPs that can and will play a huge part in politics in the UK.
We should use these better.
Sadly, we have still have some that really aren’t Conservative, and these need to be rooted out and removed.
And we still have a core of true blue Conservative members, a network right across the UK that work tirelessly to support the Party.
And we need more members and we will get more members, I am sure.
And of course we need to excite the electorate with fantastic policy and bring back our core voters.
Yes, we are not in a great position, but we can and will rebuild and return to power and return the UK to its rightful place.
Obviously, this is MY view as a Conservative member and as a patriot who loves this country.
And as someone who believes that the Conservative Party MUST survive and the UK MUST have a Conservative Government ASAP.
But I believe many members and voters feel the same.
But I know NOT all members and voters do.
And that’s fine.
We are all entitled to our OWN opinion on this.
YMMV and that’s ok.
My opinion is :
IT’S TIME TO ROLL THE DICE, AGAIN.
Thanks for reading.
Graham
Twitter : @apple_shwn
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