Robert Jenrick sets out key test for Kemi Badenoch as he throws down gauntlet live on GB News

Asked on his "benchmark for a successful set of elections" across both regional and local authorities in May, Mr Jenrick pointed out that the Tories were "only just over a year after suffering our worst ever election defeat".

However, the ex-leadership contender, who went head-to-head with Mrs Badenoch last November, declared that "we have got to be gaining ground on where we were last year; otherwise, we’re not making any progress".

"I've always been clear that we have a mountain to climb to regain the public's trust and confidence. But I want the Conservative Party to be back in business, to pick us up, dust ourselves down," the Shadow Minister added.

"And so, of course, we've got to use May to be winning seats, to be getting into a much stronger position."

According to the polls, the "mountain to climb" at the ballot box, as described by the MP, will be more challenging for the crumbling party than the previous General Election.

Last July, Rishi Sunak secured 23.7 per cent of the vote share - around six per cent ahead of where Mrs Badenoch finds herself today.

As it stands, the polls appear to predict that the Conservatives would fail to make the progress that Mr Jenrick is aspiring towards at the next set of elections.

On Tuesday, the Tories were also rocked by a deluge of defections as Reform UK secured more than a dozen new councillors in just one day.

The relatively new party now has more than 900 councillors under its belt.

Next May, Nigel Farage has a chance to claim further victory in a number of Tory and Labour-held local authorities for the second time in two years.

London boroughs and other local authorities will go up for grabs next May, including Labour-run authorities such as Rochdale and Oldham.

Last May, Nigel Farage's party gained more than 600 local council seats, topping the polls in a major breakthrough moment.

However, Reform UK is expected to perform particularly well in Essex in May.

Essex houses the constituencies currently held by top Tories Kemi Badenoch, Dame Priti Patel, Sir James Cleverly and Mark Francois.

The Rayleigh & Wickford MP has long been suspected of being a potential defector to Mr Farage's party, despite his resoluteness against such a move.

Since their roaring local success, Tory MPs have flirted with the idea of a Tory-Reform merger at the next General Election.

Gawain Towler, a close ally of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, previously said that Mr Jenrick would not want to lead "a rump party".

"This is not a man who's gonna spend his time on trampolines and going down water flumes as a third-party leader," he said on the PopConversation podcast, in a dig at Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey.