High-ranking Conservative party members are plotting the ouster of Kemi Badenoch and replacing her with Boris Johnson, the former Tory leader.

On Sunday, The UK Sun reported an ongoing secret plot to kick Ms Badenoch out amid dwindling acceptance of the party under her watch. The newspaper cited some senior conservative party members.

“Some of the old gang around Boris Johnson are back texting and in talks to get him to return,” one senior Tory said.

Another top Tory said, “The feeling is he is the only man who can take on Nigel Farage and win. They want to bring back Boris.”

The plot to oust Ms Badenoch, who succeeded Rishi Sunak in November 2024, has remained a major discussion among Tories after the party’s poor outing in the local council election on May 1.

The Tory party lost 674 council seats and control of 16 authorities, while Nigel Farage-led Reform UK won 10 councils, gaining 677 councillors.

However, Ms Badenoch warned that sacking her to change the leader would not fix the party.

“Reform had a good night. We had a bad night. And what this shows for a lot of people who hoped that just changing leader again would fix everything is that that’s not going to be enough,” Ms Badenoch said.