Can Badenoch turn the tide of members back from Reform as Tory membership slumps?

The lacklustre turnout exposed the party's dwindling base. Membership has dropped by 23.6% since 2022, reflecting growing disillusionment among grassroots Tories and the potential moves to Reform.

The final tally was the lowest in Conservative history, sparking fresh concerns over the party’s relevance as Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage and Richard Tice, steadily gains traction with disenfranchised voters.

Polling suggests Badenoch faces a tough road ahead, with only 19% of Britons expressing interest in the election outcome, while over half see the party as increasingly irrelevant.

Badenoch must now try to reverse the momentum toward Reform UK, which has gained millions of former Tory supporters.

The results are a stark warning for the Conservatives as many members and MPs are disenchanted.

Kemi Badenoch will announce her shadow cabinet within days, as she begins her term as leader of the opposition.

The new Tory leader is understood to want her top team in place by Tuesday, when the shadow cabinet is scheduled to meet for the first time since her election.

During the campaign, she suggested she would be open to offering roles to all five of her leadership rivals, although former home secretary James Cleverly has already announced his intention to return to the backbenches.

Other senior Tories to return to the backbenches include Jeremy Hunt, the former chancellor, and Ms Badenoch’s predecessor as leader, Rishi Sunak.

But Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat, Mel Stride and Dame Priti Patel appear to still be open to offers of frontbench jobs.

Among Ms Badenoch’s public backers, former Treasury minister Andrew Griffith has been widely tipped as a possible shadow chancellor.

Ms Badenoch became the first black woman to lead a major European political party on Saturday, when she defeated Mr Jenrick by 53,806 votes to 41,388.

Her initial shadow cabinet selections may also give an indication of the direction in which she intends to take the party, with several commentators suggesting her election heralds a shift to the right as the Tories try to recover votes lost to Reform UK.

In her victory speech on Saturday, she acknowledged that her party had a “huge job” ahead of it, and needed to be “honest” about where it had “made mistakes”.

She said: “The time has come to tell the truth, to stand up for our principles, to plan for our future, to reset our politics and our thinking, and to give our party, and our country, the new start that they deserve.”

Later, she told the Sunday Telegraph that the Labour Government would “fail because they are repeating many of our mistakes and are doubling down on this broken system”.

She added: “It is now the job of the Conservatives to hold them to account and begin the work of renewal.”