Kemi Badenoch retained her seat in North West Essex after a tight race back in July, receiving 19,360 votes – 35.6 percent of the overall share.

The shadow minister has served as the MP for Saffron Walden since 2017 with the seat reforming to North West Essex after the election. Now, she is the frontrunner in the Tory party leadership race.

Despite this recent rise to the top, Ms Badenoch’s constituents are less than impressed.

“I’ve been here for three and a half years and I wouldn’t know she’s my MP as I’ve never seen her,” local business owner, Karen Oakley, told Express.co.uk.

“It really doesn’t feel like she’s interested in the local community at all. She needs to actually talk to us and talk to small businesses before spurting out with what she thinks we need – she’s on the right track, but come and talk to us first,” Karen added.

Echoes of Ms Badenoch’s absence ring loudly through the town, with local residents claiming they play “hunt for Kemi” to see who will spot the local MP first.

Saffron Walden local, Geramy Martlew, 69, similarly says he’s “lived here for four years and has never seen her”, with Elaine, a 30-year resident claiming she hasn’t seen her either.

“A lot of people here are not very keen on her. I’ve never met her,” says Elaine.

Despite this, new polling shows Kemi Badenoch in the lead, with the YouGov survey putting the shadow housing secretary at 32 percent. The other three candidates are Robert Jenrick, who is rising up the ladder, placing just three points behind Ms Badenoch, and James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat who are on 20 percent and 19 percent respectively.

Mr Jenrick has seen a surge in support from the previous poll six weeks ago when he was a whopping 18 points behind Ms Badenoch.

Owner of Gluttons, a local cafe, Daniel Kitteridge says: “I’m surprised that she has gone as far up the ladder that she has. I’ve voted Tory all my life but it’s quite a worry if she gets in.

“She has her favourites who she helps and then there’s us who she turns a blind eye to,” says Kitteridge.

Saffron Walden has been a long standing Conservative seat, with the business secretary taking over from Lord Haselhurst. However, one local resident believes locals would “vote for a donkey if they were wearing a hat with a blue rosette”.

Earlier this week, the Tory leader hopeful sparked fury for her comments on maternity pay, suggesting it had “gone too far”.

Ms Badenoch told Times Radio that statutory maternity pay was “a function of tax”. “Tax comes from people who are working, we’re taking from one group of people and giving to another. This, in my view, is excessive,” she said.

Responding to this, owners of local fashion business Neonleo, Mandy Weetch and Abi North explain how “as a business, we feel that support for working mums is essential and crucial”.

Mandy said: “Although we are pleased to have a female MP, we haven’t seen her at any business events, and we personally feel, as a business, that we could have greater support.”

However, salon owner, Julie Redfern, 62, thinks her local MP is “fantastic”, saying how residents “need to realise she is a full time MP, people shouldn’t want her to just be sat in Saffron Walden”.

Julie told Express.co.uk: “She could improve on visibility, but I don’t know what people expect, for her to be walking the streets everyday?

“I find this frustrating because as a woman and mother, people expect so much of her.”

By next Wednesday, Tory MPs will have decided which two candidates to put forward to party members. Voting closes on October 31 with the successor to Rishi Sunak announced on November 2.