Kemi Badenoch is “struggling” to assert herself after the Tories’ crushing local election defeat – but a comeback for Boris Johnson would be “a sign of desperation”, a leading pollster has said. Chris Hopkins warned the Conservatives were now facing a steep uphill battle to rebuild support, with pressure growing on Ms Badenoch, who has been forced to deny a rift with Robert Jenrick, the man she beat to the job last year.

The political research director at Savanta told Express.co.uk: “She’s struggling. We’re hearing the Boris Johnson word now, aren’t we? I think that’s a sign of desperation.” Mr Johnson has characteristically downplayed talk of a comeback, without ruling it out. Speaking to GB News, he backed Ms Badenoch to turn things around and insisted he was focused on other priorities, including Ukraine. His remarks come after the Tories lost more than 470 councillors in last week’s elections, and all 10 mayoral contests they were defending. In Runcorn and Helsby, the party slumped to third place, behind Labour and Reform UK, with just 7% of the vote.

Ms Badenoch won the Conservative Party leadership election by defeating Mr Jenrick with 53,806 votes (56.5%) to his 41,388 votes (43.5%) following Mr Sunak’s resignation.

She has insisted she is staying on – but concerns are mounting on both the left and right of the party, and Mr Hopkins said the post-election landscape had left her badly exposed.

He said: “The problem with them is that they’ve got to rebuild trust, and that’s incredibly difficult from the Opposition. But I don’t think there is, an alternative to her, to be honest.”

While some polling has suggested Mr Johnson might offer a short-term lift, Mr Hopkins was sceptical.

He said: “Maybe Johnson is the person that will have the antidote to that loss of trust – but it’s not clear he even wants to come back.”

He also questioned whether Mr Johnson would relish the prospect of leading a diminished party compared with his spell as leader.

He said: “I can see him relishing the challenge, but it would be an incredibly uphill battle. Because Boris Johnson’s greatest election performance was up against Jeremy Corbyn – candy from a baby. So it’s very, very different.”

Ms Badenoch, for her part, has accepted responsibility for the losses, describing the results as “a bloodbath” and promising to win back the trust of the public.

In a speech to supporters earlier this week, she said: “We let you down.”

She added: “I’m not a dictator. I’m not a one-woman think tank. We’re under new management. But we’re also a party that has to accept that we made a lot of mistakes and it will take time for people to listen to us again.”

On the possibility of a leadership contest, she said: “There’s not an election right now – we need to focus on the people of this country, not ourselves.”

Some centrist MPs are thought to be questioning whether Ms Badenoch, seen by some voters – as well as former Tory Chancellor George Osborne – as a “culture warrior”, can win over swing seats in the South.

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Mr Johnson remains a divisive figure in the party – adored by sections of the grassroots but seen as toxic by others following the so-called Partygate scandal and the wave of resignations which brought down his government in 2022.

Asked directly by GB News on Thursday whether he might return to Parliament, he gave a typically flamboyant response, which stopped short of ruling it out.

He said: “I’ve got as much of a chance of returning to Parliament, as I have of being decapitated by friends, being locked in a disused fridge or being reincarnated as an olive, or whatever else it was I used to say.

“I think I’ve got a very productive life doing all sorts of things that really interest me. I spent a lot of time trying to campaign for Ukraine and to make sure that people’s awareness and understanding of that is raised where it needs to be, where it needs to be raised.

“But I think that I’m a proud, passionate Conservative, and I’m sure that we are going to come back, and I think Kemi has got every chance of turning this thing around, I really do.”