Labour targeting Badenoch seat with tactical voting call

Tory leadership hopeful is facing a fight to win in 'blue wall'

- DAVID MADDOX

A phantom leadership election campaign is already underway to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader, as his party braces itself for an expected defeat. But Kemi Badenoch, the longtime frontrunner to replace Mr Sunak among the bookmakers, is in a fight to hold on to her seat as polling suggests she could be ousted through tactical voting.

Issy Waite, the Labour candidate for North West Essex – the reformed Saffron Walden seat in Tory “blue wall” heartlands – has claimed she is just 2 per cent behind the trade and business secretary with three weeks to go before the election.

In a bid for campaign funds and in an appeal for Lib Dems and Greens to vote tactically, Ms Waite has posted a projection suggesting Ms Badenoch is on 36 per cent, and that she is snapping at her heels on 34 per cent.