LONDON — Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch said in London on Thursday that she was encouraged by her party's performance in England's local, mayoral and devolved elections, after the Conservatives lost about 500 councillors and ceded several councils to Reform UK. "Despite the setbacks, I am encouraged by our results this week," she said.

Reform UK took control of three local authorities previously held by the Conservatives, ending the party's 25-year control of Essex County Council and taking Suffolk County Council and Newcastle-under-Lyme council. The Conservatives also lost seats in Surrey to the Liberal Democrats.

The Conservatives won control of Westminster council in London and the most seats in Wandsworth council. The party defeated Reform UK in council elections in Bexley and Bromley.

In the devolved contests, the Conservative party received 11% of the vote in the Senedd elections, its lowest ever vote share. The Conservative vote share in Scotland fell by 10.1 percentage points, while the Labour vote share in Scotland fell by 2.4 percentage points.

Vote share projections from Sky News showed Reform UK leading with 27% of the vote and the Conservatives with 20%. Under the same vote share tracker in the previous year, the Conservative party was 15 percentage points behind Reform UK. BBC analysis showed Reform UK with 26% of the vote, the Green Party 18%, the Conservatives and Labour each 17%, and the Liberal Democrats 16%.

Badenoch said, "The Conservative party is rebuilding steadily, seriously and with purpose." She added, "We are not asking people to forget the past but to judge us by what we do next."

Richard Holden, MP for Basildon and Billericay, said, "Even at the count I had a Reform candidate saying they were really impressed by Kemi." He added, "There's a shedload of work to do, but I'm more confident after these election results than I was before them."

Political commentator Henry Hill said, "There's no challenger. The party is also quite determined to find a silver lining, because it doesn't really have an alternative at the moment." He also said, "If you measure it in terms of, 'Is the Conservative party going to die?', then its demise seems less likely than it did a year ago. But if you have any ambitions beyond that, it's not obvious that the party really is on the road to recovery."

More in Common found Badenoch had a net favourability rating of -9, making her the most popular party leader among those measured. A YouGov tracker found that 29% of Britons viewed her favourably, her highest rating to date.