Kemi Badenoch has insisted her Conservative party is “down, but not out” as she vowed to fight back from heavy election losses. The Tory leader promised her party would "come out fighting" after losing 674 council seats and control of 16 authorities.

The drubbing came on the back of last summer’s general election pummelling which ultimately led to her replacing Rishi Sunak. Despite growing backbench unrest Mrs Badenoch cautioned against a knee-jerk response, saying the party's issues were "not going to be fixed after six months" of her leadership.

She told the BBC: "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.

“We tried that previously. And that brought us to a historic defeat."

Speaking to the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Badenoch said protest was "in the air" in these local elections and argued her party was working on a "slow and steady" plan to return to government by the end of the decade.

She added: "We are going to come out with the policies that people want to see, but what we are not going to do is rush out and tell the public things that are not true just so we can win votes.

"This is not about winning elections; this is about fixing our country. Yes, of course, you need to win elections to do that, but you also need a credible plan."

Asked if it was feasible that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage could be the next prime minister, she said "anything is feasible", noting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had won re-election this week after trailing in the polls.

But she insisted: "My job is to make sure that he [Farage] does not become prime minister because he does not have the answers to the problems the country is facing."

Mrs Badenoch was a cabinet minister in the previous Conservative government and took over as party leader last November, following its worst defeat ever in a general election.

She has faced some criticism over the “slow start” to her leadership with some even calling for her to step aside.

But shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick - a previous contender for the Tory leadership - has backed the former Cabinet Secretary, insisting she is doing an "excellent job".

Sir Edward Leigh, the Father of the House, said the Tories needed to take on Reform by being as “tough” as Mr Farage on immigration and net zero.

He said: “It must be obvious to everybody now that we’ve got to do what the people want and have policies on net zero and immigration which are just as tough as Reform.

“And sooner or later, before the election, we’ve got to have an electoral alliance with them, otherwise we’ll let Labour in the game. I think they’re the views of many Tory MPs.”

Lord Maude, a former Tory chairman, said the party was “a phoenix, not a dodo” and would rise from the ashes “sooner than” people think under her leadership.

Mrs Badenoch is expected to respond to the defeat at the hands of Reform with a series of new policy announcements over the coming weeks.

She will start this week by challenging Labour to toughen up online safety laws, raising the minimum age of access for social media sites from 13 to 16.

The Tory leader is also readying an offensive on crime, amid expectations that Labour will announce it is scrapping shorter jail terms to free up prison space.

The results in the local elections were worse than Conservatives had feared, with the party not only losing councils to Reform but also the Liberal Democrats.

It lost 674 council seats and control of all 16 local authorities it was defending but wrested the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayoralty from Labour.

Reform UK was the big winner, taking control of 10 councils and gaining 677 councillors, as the party seemed able to tap into widespread dissatisfaction with the Conservatives and Labour.

The Lib Dems were the other standout winners, gaining 163 seats and control of three councils.

They seized Shropshire from the Tories and gained control of Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire after both previously had no party in overall control.

The Green Party made some gains, winning 44 seats in total - however it suffered disappointment in the West of England mayoral race.

Pollsters estimate that, if elections had taken place across the UK on Thursday, the Conservatives would have slumped to just 15% of the national vote, its worst-ever share of such a projection, behind the Liberal Democrats on 17%.

Labour would have won 20% of the vote, according to the projection, equalling its lowest previous recorded performance in 2009.