\n<\/p>\n
Robert Jenrick had been migration minister for just a few days in 2022 when he gave a broadcast interview that could easily have been given by a minister in the current government.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuella Braverman [the former home secretary] and her predecessor, Priti Patel, were procuring more hotels,\u201d he told Sky News. \u201cWhat I have done in my short tenure is ramp that up and procure even more. Because November, historically, has been one of the highest months of the year for migrants illegally crossing the Channel.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went on to add: \u201cI would never demonise people coming to this country in pursuit of a better life. And I understand and appreciate our obligation to refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a very different Jenrick who showed up in Epping last weekend at the site of prolonged protests outside the Bell hotel, which houses asylum seekers.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat to be with peaceful, patriotic protesters in Epping today,\u201d he posted on X. \u201cPeople are right to be fed up of illegal migration. And the crime and billions being wasted because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jenrick\u2019s inflammatory visit to Epping, where he was pictured close to a well-known far-right activist, showed why he is \u2013 in some ways \u2013 one of the most effective members of the shadow cabinet, but also the political risks of his sometimes controversial public appearances.<\/p>\n
Supporters argue that no one else in the shadow cabinet is so adept at seizing the political initiative.<\/p>\n
They point to his much-discussed recent social media videos, including one of him accosting fare dodgers on the London underground, as evidence of his success. And they add his appearance in Epping, where not even the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has sought to go, shows he is one of a small number of Conservatives able to outmanoeuvre his populist rightwing opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly difficult for us to get attention right now,\u201d said one Conservative MP. \u201cIf all of the shadow cabinet were doing what Jenrick is doing, that would be great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another said: \u201cThere\u2019s much noise around Reform right now. Any noise from a Tory perspective is good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others, however, are accusing him of rank hypocrisy.<\/p>\n
In an unusual personal attack on a Conservative politician, Reform published a series of X posts accusing him of having \u201cboasted\u201d about opening more asylum hotels while in government.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, several Conservatives say they are uneasy about Jenrick\u2019s tactics and accuse him of being more interested in lining up a leadership bid than helping his party.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is hard to take him seriously,\u201d said one Tory MP. \u201cThe reservation is that he\u2019s not Nigel Farage, and he will never be Nigel Farage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another said: \u201cThe challenge for leadership hopefuls like Jenrick is that he presided over an immigration policy that increased the use of hotels, which is why Reform are now focusing their attacks on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also have the likes of [fellow Conservative MPs] Danny Kruger, Nick Timothy and Katie Lam who advised successive prime ministers and home secretaries now behaving as though they are clean of the past and have the answers. It doesn\u2019t fool anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>Jenrick\u2019s visit to a Bell hotel protest showed why he is one of the most effective members of the shadow cabinet, but also the political risks of his controversial public appearances.<\/span> Photograph: Jordan Pettitt\/PA<\/p>\n Jenrick\u2019s difficulty in being taken seriously as a rightwing agitator, after years in government as a supporter of Rishi Sunak, mirrors the wider challenge facing the party in shaking off the legacy of 14 years in power.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Record levels of legal migration, and tens of thousands of small boat crossings a year, have left the Conservatives as the least trusted party on immigration.<\/p>\n Many of the party\u2019s own MPs are concerned about exactly this. A recent Conservative social media post criticising the \u201cfreebies and perks\u201d given to asylum seekers arriving in the UK was met with scorn by many of its own MPs.<\/p>\n On a leaked Tory WhatsApp chat, MP Lewis Cocking said: \u201cThis makes us look silly as we gave them all this too, which is why we are in the mess we are in today.\u201d<\/p>\n Rob Ford, professor of political science at Manchester University, said: \u201cGoing big on the issue makes sense on the surface in that salience of it is high and Labour\u2019s poll figures are bad too.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it is and always has been Farage\u2019s core issue. So their recent behaviour is very much \u2018Nigel is right, don\u2019t vote for him.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cJenrick showing up at that hotel may work as a campaign image for the coming Tory leadership contest but it also makes it more likely that whoever wins that contest takes over a ship headed rapidly to the seabed.\u201d<\/p>\n Some say that by attacking asylum seekers so aggressively, the party risks emboldening the far right and undermining the entire idea of granting asylum. A recent study published in the British Journal of Political Science found attacks by mainstream politicians on migration were far more powerful in changing public attitudes towards migrants than ones from the hard-right.<\/p>\n The researchers found that \u201cstatements by mainstream politicians lead to more norm-erosion than similar statements by radical-right politicians\u201d.<\/p>\n Those concerns are shared by some anti-racism campaigners. Lewis Nielsen, a spokesperson for Stand Up to Racism, recently said: \u201cJenrick is fanning the flames of the far right by chasing Reform UK votes. He\u2019s giving confidence to known fascists.\u201d<\/p>\n None of this troubles those close to Jenrick, however, who believe that even being pictured at the same rally as a former British National Party strategist can be turned to their advantage.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this stage in the game, controversy is good,\u201d said one Jenrick ally. \u201cMaking controversy on a point where we are saying what the public want us to say is more than a net benefit \u2013 much more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Robert Jenrick had been migration minister for just a few days in 2022 when he gave a broadcast interview that could easily have been given by a minister in the current government. \u201cSuella Braverman [the former home secretary] and her predecessor, Priti Patel, were procuring more hotels,\u201d he told Sky News. \u201cWhat I have done<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[1865,1532,10387,1108,5360,9321,9828,5781,1099,10388,2324],"class_list":{"0":"post-17261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-attention","9":"tag-bid","10":"tag-checked","11":"tag-haunts","12":"tag-hotel","13":"tag-jenrick","14":"tag-jenricks","15":"tag-migrant","16":"tag-record","17":"tag-rightwing","18":"tag-robert"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}