Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has apologised to councillors who lost their seats in the recent local elections. Speaking after "mixed results" across the country, she expressed her regret directly to those affected."I have a message for all of those conservative councillors who lost their seats. How sincerely sorry I am for your loss because I know how hard you worked, but we are going to win those seats back," Badenoch said.Her comments came as Conservative candidate Paul Bristow secured a victory in Cambridgeshire, defeating Reform candidate Ryan Coogan who finished in second place.WATCH THE CLIP ABOVE FOR MORE
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00:00Thank you, Paul, and it's an absolute love to be here in Peterborough with Paul.
00:05We campaigned together many times. I've known this man well over 15 years.
00:09I knew he could do it, and you have done it.
00:16I know that the results across the country are pretty mixed.
00:19We've seen lots of disappointing results.
00:21What I saw everywhere I campaigned was that people are fed up with the Labour government.
00:26They were angry about winter fuel payments. They were angry about the jobs tax.
00:31But they are still not yet ready to trust us.
00:34We have a big job to do to rebuild trust with the public.
00:38That's the job that the Conservative Party has given me,
00:40and I'm going to make sure that we get ourselves back to the place
00:44where we are seen as the credible alternative to Labour.
00:47All across our country, we are seeing that our economy is not growing.
00:57Growth has halved. We are seeing taxes rising. Unemployment is rising.
01:02We need to make sure that Keir Starmer is a one-term Prime Minister.
01:06And the election results that we are seeing show that he is on course to be a one-term Prime Minister.
01:12But we can't take things for granted. Protest parties are doing well today.
01:17I know that. It is disappointing.
01:19And I have a message for all of those Conservative councillors who lost their seats.
01:23How sincerely sorry I am for your loss, because I know how hard you worked.
01:28But we are going to win those seats back.
01:30That is my job now.
01:31We are going to make sure that your hard work was not in vain.
01:35Conservative councils did deliver better services for lower taxes across the board.
01:39Other parties may be winning now, but we are going to show, as with Paul here in Cambridgeshire,
01:45that we can deliver and that we are on course and recovering.