𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Kemi Badenoch launched her local election campaign promising to get Britain working again, as she told supporters the party was coming back. At a rally in central London, t​he Tory boss took aim at Labour’s track record in local government, using Birmingham council as an example of what life would look like under Labour.

Brummies have been left with “rubbish piling, food rotting in the streets” and “rats as big as cats”, she warned, after the city was left stinking following a lengthy bin strike. Putting Sir Keir on notice, Ms Badenoch kickstarted her party’s local campaign warning Britons “vote Labour get trash”.

Speaking ahead of an army of party faithful at a packed-out rally she made a series of pledges – scrapping the fuel duty hike, abolishing stamp duty on family homes, and mandating that police arrest people smoking drugs in public.

Ms Badenoch fumed: “We will tell the police that they must stop drugs being smoked openly in public spaces. Why should people put up with it? They shouldn’t. And they shouldn’t have to pay to clean up the mess either.”

The Tory leader also promised to reverse Labour’s inheritance tax raid on family farms and pledged to cut business rates for struggling High Street shops.

Local elections will take place across swathes of the country on May 7, with devolved elections in Scotland and Wales also set for the same day.

Polling suggests it will be a tough day for the party, who have consistently been languishing far behind their rivals on the Right, the Reform Party led by Nigel Farage.

Ms Badenoch is defending over 1,000 seats in the forthcoming elections, and faces a tough fight in London where the party is predicted to lose control of several boroughs to Mr Farage’s insurgent party.

But the defiant Tory leader told members she was “optimistic” about the future because her party was “coming back” for hard working people, to “save them from third-rate people running their government and their councils”.

However, the rally was mired by comments made by shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy about public prayers in the capital.

Mr Timothy referred to an Islamic prayer event in Trafalgar Square as an act of “domination”, sparking fury from Muslim groups and handing Labour an opening to attack Ms Badenoch after the rally.

In a statement, Labour chair Anna Turley MP said Ms Badenoch had “used her local election launch to back her Shadow Justice Secretary when she should have already sacked him.”

She added: “It’s shameful that she lacks any backbone and won’t condemn his despicable comments.”

Ms Badenoch said she respected freedom of religion, but drew the line at what she claimed was the segregation of women at the event.

She added: “I will not take lectures from Keir Starmer or Labour on this, because in 2021, Keir Starmer pulled out of an event organised by this same group.”