𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Kemi Badenoch said Labour’s expected election humiliation on Thursday could mean the end for Keir Starmer. The Conservative Party leader’s withering assessment comes as England, Wales and Scotland go to the polls in the biggest set of votes for two years.

Polling suggests that Labour could face heavy losses, with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and the Green Party are likely to benefit in a seismic shift for UK politics. In an exclusive eve-of-voting day interview with the Daily Daily Express, Mrs Badenoch also confirmed for the first time that the Tories will back the pensions Triple Lock at the next General Election. And she vowed to fight the Prime Minister – or whoever replaces him – over Labour’s unpicking of Brexit and branded the Greens’ leader Zack Polanski as “dangerous” for Britain. Mrs Badenoch was speaking in the back of a Hackney Cab on her last day on the campaign trail in Croydon, south London. It begged the obvious question, will the election results mean “taxi for Starmer?”

“Well, it could be,” she said. “We have not seen him anywhere on the campaign trail. He has been hiding because the public don’t want him, and everywhere I go, people shout out from their cars – ‘when are you getting Starmer out? When are you getting Starmer out?’.

“He’s very unpopular, and he’s unpopular because people don’t like what he is doing to the country, whether it’s on the economy or how he’s managing defence, crime.”

The local elections are set to be disastrous for Labour, but they will be almost as bad for the Tories, who are forecast to lose between 600 and 1,000 seats. But Mrs Badenoch is remarkably upbeat, insisting she is “bringing hope back”.

“We’re a new party with a new leader. I’m fixing the mistakes that were made in the past, and I want people to know that we’re bringing hope back.” Since last year, the Tory leader has seen her own personal popularity soar, largely thanks to some electric performances in the House of Commons and forcing the government into multiple U-turns.

Some eye-catching policies, such as abolishing stamp duty for main home purchases, have added to the momentum. One policy she won’t be changing is the Triple Lock, introduced by the Conservative-led Coalition with the Lib Dems in 2010. Asked if it would be one of her policies she would fight the next general election on, she confirmed: “Yes. We are not looking to recreate the pensioner poverty, which we saw when we came in in 2010. “The reason why the triple lock was brought in by David Cameron was that there was so much pensioner poverty. Let’s face it, £12,500 is not that much money for people to live on.”

Her remarks come amid growing calls in Westminster, including from senior figures inside her own party, to scrap it because it’s “unaffordable”.

The triple lock means taxpayer-funded pensions rise each year in line with either inflation, wage increases or 2.5% – whichever is the highest.

The Office for Budget Responsibility now estimates it will cost around £15.5billion per year by the end of this Parliament in 2029, around three times what was originally forecast when it was brought in.

Last month Mr Farage said his party would pledge to keep it, arguing they will slash out-of-work benefits payments to fund it, after having his arm twisted by Robert Jenrick.

Mrs Badenoch said she will help pay for it by slashing the welfare bill. “The real problem is that people who can work are not working, they are on welfare,” she added. “Welfare should be for the most vulnerable, for those with disabilities, it’s not a lifestyle choice.”

Dennis Reed, director of Solver Voices, said: “As we head into another cost of living crisis and possible deep recession, pensioners will be reassured that momentum is building behind the long term future of the Triple Lock.

“Both Reform UK and the Conservatives have now committed to the Lock going into the next General Election and we will redouble our efforts to persuade the Greens and Labour to do likewise. Good on Kemi Badenoch for grasping the nettle.”

In a no holds barred interview Mrs Badenoch also warned that Mr Polanski is “dangerous” for Britain and “in over his head” following fury over his response to the Golders Green antisemitic terror attack, for which he has since apologised. She said: “He’s in over his head. He is an example of those people who think politics is just a game where you talk and then you get points and you win an election.

“I don’t think he understands how the economy runs. He would be dangerous, certainly for our economy. I don’t think he understands the nature of the threats that we face. He would be dangerous for national security, thinking that he could just sit down and have a chat with Putin.”

Mrs Badenoch has ruled out the prospect of a deal with her fierce political rival Nigel Farage or even local pacts to run authorities with Reform UK. And she said there should be an inquiry into the £5 million donation he received from a billionaire backer before he became an MP.

“I do think so,” she said. “We’ve already made a report to the standards committee that investigates these sorts of things. £5 million is a lot of money. This is life changing, money.” Mr Farage revealed he was given the money in 2024 by Christopher Harborne to pay for his security.