'We can't do it again' - Badenoch rules out replicating local election success The Conservatives have ruled out repeating similar results in the local elections to those they attained in 2021. "This time four years ago, we won about two-thirds of the seats we stood in", Kemi Badenoch said. "It was unprecedented, we know we can't do that again, it is going to be challenging", the party leader said. Badenoch said she is concerned by all parties, added that Conservative candidates are facing a "very, very competitive political environment", and warned people are "voting for protest parties". Badenoch told broadcasters that what is "really surprising is how bad Labour is performing - that's boosting the Reform vote, making it top the polls". She spoke to the media for the first time in the week of local elections, which will take place on Thursday. She was on a visit to traditional Tory heartlands in Lincolnshire, where she visited a farm and tried her hand at getting behind the wheel of a tractor. Badenoch is under pressure to prove that the Conservative vote will not crumble to Reform, with the much smaller party talking up their chances of success throughout the election campaign. She recognised that "people are disillusioned with the two main parties" and said she views her job as rebuilding trust and ensuring the Conservatives are a "credible alternative for when the general election comes". Conservative-Reform coalitions 'are always an option' locally Badenoch also ruled out the possibility of a national coalition with Reform UK "completely" and said Nigel Farage's party wants to "destroy" the Conservatives. But she said that "coalitions are always an option at a local level" and that "coalitions [may] happen" to deliver a "conservative agenda" on local councils, following the vote on Thursday. But she added that "the Conservative Party are the only real conservative party". "We're not just standing in local elections for the fun of it", she added. "We are people who care about our local communities", Badenoch concluded.