‘We’re quietly chirpy’: some Tories glimpse ray of hope, but others see abyss at May elections

Reform’s lead waning, Labour struggling and Badenoch doing well at PMQs all boost mood but is disaster inevitable? “The Conservative party is coming back,” Kemi Badenoch declared at her party’s local election launch last week, surrounded by cheering supporters. And it’s fair to say that many of her MPs are, relative to their mood in recent years, quite cheery. To others in the Conservative family, though, this optimism appears disconnected from the reality of the situation facing the party. E...

By Peter Walker Senior political correspondent