In the 11 months since Kemi Badenoch has become party leader, the Conservative Party has dropped from 26% to 17% in the polls.

It has lost nearly 700 council seats, 16 councils, while 18 senior Tories have defected, including one of the party's great thinkers, Danny Kruger.

Politics Live: Tory councillors defect to Reform

Her personal poll rating, minus 47, is worse than the lowest ebb of Iain Duncan Smith's fated leadership and worse than when Boris Johnson resigned.

To rub salt into the wounds, a Sky News/YouGov poll this week found that the majority of Tory members think Robert Jenrick should be the leader, while half don't think she should lead them into the next general election.

Being leader of the Opposition is often described as the hardest job in politics, but for Badeno

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