Kemi Badenoch has acknowledged her party is enduring a “rough and bumpy time” following the defections of MP Danny Kruger and former minister Maria Caulfield to Reform UK.
The Conservative leader said “there will be some people who won’t be patient” with her party’s pace of change, and suggested there could be more defections if Nigel Farage’s Reform maintains its polling lead.
She told the PA news agency in central London: “It’s quite clear that we lost a historic defeat last year. It’s going to take time for us to win back the public trust.
“There will be some people who won’t be patient and just want to jump to the party that’s doing well in the polls.
“We saw that happen last year with Tory MPs jumping to the Labour Party because they were doing well in the polls.
“I’m not going to be distracted by any of that. I’ve got to focus on what is happening in people’s lives right now. And the biggest issue is the economy.”
Ms Badenoch also told GB News that “every leader regrets losing people to another party”.
She added that others could leave “because they don’t like the new policies”, such as her emphasis on “no more lavish spending” and cutting welfare, and agreed that her party faced a difficult period.
She said: “When a party has just had a historic defeat, we will have a very tough and bumpy time before we come back up again.”
East Wiltshire MP Mr Kruger, who had sat on Mrs Badenoch’s front bench as a shadow welfare minister, defected to Reform on Monday, declaring the Conservative Party was “over” and urging his colleagues to join him.
On Tuesday, shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said Mr Kruger was “profoundly wrong” in his analysis of the Conservative Party’s future.
The first sitting Conservative MP to defect to the party, Mr Kruger was joined on Tuesday by former Lewes MP Maria Caulfield, who lost her seat at last year’s general election.
She told GB News: “If you are conservative right-minded, then the future is Reform. The country is going to change a lot.”
Ms Caulfield returned to her previous job as a nurse after leaving Parliament and switched her allegiance a month ago, according to the broadcaster.
Although less damaging to Mrs Badenoch than the defection of sitting MP Mr Kruger, the revelation adds to the building sense of exodus from the traditional party of the centre right.
A Labour spokesman said: “A day barely passes without another failed Tory politician jumping ship and tying Reform to their record of failure.
“Nigel Farage’s party is a comfortable home for Conservatives who trashed Britain’s public services and crashed the economy, saddling families with sky-high mortgages and prices.
“Only this Labour Government is driving forward delivery, to make working people better off and renew our country.”
