Kemi Badenoch has refused to say whether she would resign as party leader if the Conservatives have a poor showing at elections in May.
She said it was “neither here nor there” what she would do after elections in Wales and Scotland that will be seen as a key test of Reform UK’s reach.
Her comments came during a Conservative Party conference overshadowed by questions about Mrs Badenoch’s leadership and the challenge from Nigel Farage’s party.
It has also been slimmed down compared with previous years, with fewer stands in the exhibition centre and the main conference hall often half empty for speeches by shadow cabinet ministers.
Asked repeatedly whether she would stand down if her party went backwards at the local elections, she told Sky News:
“What I’m here to do at my conference is not talk about where I’m going in May or what’s happening.
“It’s about the stronger economy that we’re going to deliver. People are suffering out there.
“We said we’re going to leave the ECHR. We’re showing people the direction of travel.
“And if I may finish, until those policies bear down, until people understand where we’re going, talking about what I’m going to do after a set of elections is neither here nor there.”
A YouGov poll published on Monday suggested half of Conservative members did not want Mrs Badenoch to lead the party into the next election, while Robert Jenrick was their top choice to replace her.
The shadow justice secretary has avoided making disloyal comments about Mrs Badenoch, and urged the “survivors” of the 2024 election to “get behind Kemi”.
“Give her the support that she deserves so that she can do the difficult job of rebuilding this party,” he said during a fringe event with the Telegraph’s Daily T podcast.
In his speech to conference, billed as the main event for Tuesday, Mr Jenrick urged the Conservatives to “take our country back”, as he told the party conference Britain was “too precious to lose”.
He also criticised the Attorney General, Lord Richard Hermer, for his work representing defendants in terror cases, comparing him with “one of those infamous mafia lawyers of yesteryear” who “always chose a particular type of client”.
Brandishing a judge’s wig, he pledged to put ministers back in charge of judicial appointments, claiming the current system had allowed “political activists” on to the bench.
A flurry of defections to Reform by 20 Conservative councillors were announced on Tuesday, as Mrs Badenoch undertook a series of media interviews.
Mrs Badenoch said the party was “shedding a lot of baggage”.
“It’s going to be a long journey back from a historic defeat, and on very long, difficult journeys you will lose some people on the way,” she said.
After a call from Conservative frontbencher Andrew Rosindell for an electoral pact with Reform, Mrs Badenoch said: “I’m not interested in doing pacts. I was not elected to have a pact with Reform.
“I was elected to change the Conservative Party, make it clear what we stand for, and that’s what I’ve done at this conference,” she told Sky News.
