How bad are things getting for Kemi Badenoch? Very bad indeed, if the news is true that Tory MPs turned down the opportunity for free booze if it meant hanging out with their beleaguered leader.
Badenoch last night held a drinks reception with her twitchy parliamentary party to assuage them after a disastrous set of local election results in which her party got a projected vote share of 15% and lost 16 councils.
Her MPs, however, opted instead to save themselves for VE Day, or to watch Arsenal’s Champions League semi-final or indeed do anything rather than rally around their leader, at least if Sky News’s Sam Coates is to be believed. He posted on X last night that a source had told his executive producer Paul Twinn: “Only 25 MPs showed up to Kemi’s drinks last night – [Nigel] Huddlestone [Tory party co-chair] having to ring around to get people there. One MP said: ‘The Prosecco was flat and the atmosphere was flatter still’.”
Still, at just under 21% of the Tory parliamentary party, that’s still a better result than the elections. Perhaps the problem was a Conservative leader serving Prosecco to MPs rather than vintage champagne – whatever would Alan Clark have said?
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