\n<\/p>\n
Robert Jenrick made a dramatic defection to Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK on Thursday, declaring the Conservatives \u201crotten\u201d and a \u201cfailed\u201d party, after being sacked by Kemi Badenoch for plotting against her.<\/p>\n
In a high-stakes day for the future of the British right, Jenrick became the most senior Tory to switch allegiance to Reform, launching into a fiery and personal denunciation of his former colleagues in the shadow cabinet.<\/p>\n
The defection of Jenrick deepens the schism on the right of politics as Badenoch struggles to keep the Conservatives together in the face of a string of high-profile moves to Reform.<\/p>\n
The former shadow justice secretary, who stood for the Tory leadership against Badenoch, said the Conservative party in Westminster \u201cisn\u2019t sorry, it doesn\u2019t get it, it hasn\u2019t changed, it won\u2019t change, it can\u2019t change\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn opposition, it is easy to paper over these cracks, but the divisions and delusions are still there,\u201d he said at a hastily reorganised press conference with Farage in Westminster on Thursday. \u201cI can\u2019t in good conscience stick with a party that has failed so badly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jenrick had the Conservative whip removed and his party membership suspended earlier in the day, after Badenoch said she had found \u201cirrefutable evidence\u201d that he was planning to defect. The Tory leader appointed the West Suffolk MP Nick Timothy as shadow justice secretary after Jenrick\u2019s sacking.<\/p>\n
His dismissal appeared to have caught both him and Farage off-guard. The Reform leader called it the \u201clatest Christmas present I\u2019ve ever had\u201d and said it was still \u201c60\/40\u201d if Jenrick would defect until Badenoch forced his hand.<\/p>\n
However, Jenrick later admitted that he had already resolved to defect by the morning of his sacking, and that it would probably have happened in the coming days.<\/p>\n
Jenrick arrived on stage \u2013 after a lengthy and awkward delay \u2013 with a savage denunciation of his former party and its time in government. \u201cWhat\u2019s the truth? Both Labour and the Conservatives broke Britain. Both parties are committed to a set of ideas that have failed Britain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Jenrick (left) with Nigel Farage and the Reform deputy leader, Richard Tice, in Westminster on Thursday.<\/span> Photograph: Guy Bell\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n A senior Reform source said: \u201cHe\u2019s the No 1 Tory we have all wanted to come over. He\u2019s been a lone warrior in his party ever since Kemi won [the leadership].\u201d<\/p>\n Jenrick said discussions had started with Reform in September, understood to have been facilitated by the former Tory adviser Tim Montgomerie, who joined Farage\u2019s party in December 2024. He also confirmed that he would not call a byelection in his Newark constituency.<\/p>\n But Jenrick added that there had not been discussions about a defection, but about the state of the country.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing has been offered, I\u2019m proud to join and work with a set of people I have come to know over a very long time \u2026 who have built this party from nothing and I\u2019m just here to play my part,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Jenrick said that some around the shadow cabinet table had said behind closed doors they knew the UK was broken but could not admit it \u201cbecause it was us who broke it\u201d.<\/p>\n He singled out the shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, and the shadow foreign secretary, Priti Patel, for direct criticism. Stride, he said, was the work and pensions secretary who \u201coversaw the explosion of the welfare bill and blocked the reforms needed\u201d.<\/p>\n He said that Patel as home secretary had overseen the surge in legal migration.<\/p>\n The former immigration minister admitted he had not intended to leave the Tories on Thursday but said he had resolved to leave soon.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know I was going to leave today, but I had resolved to leave the party, and that was, as I said, something I had given a great deal of thought to over a very long time, and the fact that it\u2019s happened a little bit sooner \u2026 so what?\u201d<\/p>\n Farage said that after the 7 May local elections there would be no more Tory defections, and Reform would reject more seeking to join. He said Jenrick was \u201cin sackcloth and ashes\u201d about decisions made during his time in the Tory government.<\/p>\n Over the course of the next few weeks, Reform would begin to allocate jobs and responsibilities to key people, Farage said. Jenrick is understood to have discussed party\u2019s economic policies with Farage, but any appointment as its economic spokesperson could cause tensions with the party\u2019s deputy leader, Richard Tice, and Zia Yusuf, the head of policy, who are also potential contenders.<\/p>\n Farage said he knew the party had to have some experienced people if it was to enter government. \u201cWe need the experience, I think that\u2019s absolutely vital.\u201d<\/p>\n Jenrick denied he was interested in becoming the leader of Reform. \u201cNo one joins Reform unless they believe Nigel Farage is the best person to lead this country \u2026 that\u2019s why I\u2019ve put aside my personal ambition.\u201d<\/p>\n Both men brushed off their previous criticisms of each other, saying it was the way of politics, despite Farage having described Jenrick as a \u201cfraud\u201d who cannot be trusted as recently as last summer.<\/p>\n Westminster sources said Badenoch had been monitoring Jenrick\u2019s activities for some time because of suspicions he was working to undermine the party, and she believed his defection was imminent.<\/p>\n It later emerged one of Jenrick\u2019s own inner circle had discovered his draft resignation speech and sent it to the leader\u2019s office, parts of which were released by the Conservative party on Thursday. One person from Jenrick\u2019s wing of the party said they believed the MP had defected after realising he did not have enough support in the party to launch a challenge to Badenoch with guaranteed success after the May elections \u2013 especially with rising star Katie Lam building a support base.<\/p>\n <\/span>Kemi Badenoch during a visit to Edinburgh on Thursday. \u2018Robert Jenrick is not my problem any more. He\u2019s Nigel Farage\u2019s problem now,\u2019 she said.<\/span> Photograph: Murdo MacLeod\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Speaking to journalists on a visit to Edinburgh ahead of May\u2019s Holyrood elections, where polls suggest the Scottish party will incur heavy losses at the hands of Reform, Badenoch denied this was \u201ca very bad day\u201d. She said defections to Reform were evidence that \u201ca lot of people have gone into politics for the wrong reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople who go into politics because they think it\u2019s a gravy train, or because they think it\u2019s a way to get on TV, are finding out that the Conservative party is not the party for them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd they\u2019re going to the party that is for people like that. Robert Jenrick is not my problem any more. He\u2019s Nigel Farage\u2019s problem now.\u201d<\/p>\n The Tory leader said more details on the \u201cirrefutable evidence\u201d that prompted her to sack Jenrick on Thursday morning would come \u201cin due course\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time we have a press conference, we have announcements, we have ideas of how to improve the country,\u201d Badenoch said. \u201cWhen Reform has press conferences, it\u2019s just: here\u2019s another defection.\u201d<\/p>\n Badenoch told Sky News that Jenrick was planning to \u201ctorch the Conservative party by putting out comments and allegations that would have been very, very bad\u201d.<\/p>\n Shortly before the news broke on Thursday, Jenrick had posted on X: \u201cIt\u2019s time for the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Robert Jenrick made a dramatic defection to Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK on Thursday, declaring the Conservatives \u201crotten\u201d and a \u201cfailed\u201d party, after being sacked by Kemi Badenoch for plotting against her. In a high-stakes day for the future of the British right, Jenrick became the most senior Tory to switch allegiance to Reform, launching into<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[3494,7757,3920,16503,9321,2112,838,2324],"class_list":{"0":"post-41797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-badenoch","9":"tag-barbs","10":"tag-betrayal","11":"tag-boot","12":"tag-jenrick","13":"tag-joins","14":"tag-reform","15":"tag-robert"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41797","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=41797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}