In a shocking move, former Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has dramatically defected to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, unleashing a scathing attack on his former colleagues. Jenrick, who had stood against Kemi Badenoch in the Tory leadership race, declared the Conservatives “rotten” and a “failed” party that “hasn’t changed, won’t change, and can’t change.”
Jenrick’s high-profile defection deepens the divisions on the right of British politics, as Badenoch struggles to keep the Conservatives united in the face of a string of prominent figures moving to Reform UK. The former shadow cabinet member accused the Tories of “breaking Britain” and singled out shadow chancellor Mel Stride and shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel for criticism, claiming they had overseen the “explosion of the welfare bill” and a “surge in legal migration” respectively.
Speaking at a hastily organised press conference with Farage, Jenrick said he could no longer “in good conscience stick with a party that has failed so badly.” The Tory whip was removed and his party membership suspended earlier on Thursday, after Badenoch said she had found “irrefutable evidence” that he was planning to defect.
Jenrick admitted he had already resolved to leave the Conservatives by the morning of his sacking, though he claimed discussions with Reform UK had started back in September. Farage described Jenrick’s defection as the “latest Christmas present I’ve ever had,” though the former Tory MP said no specific positions had been offered to him within the party.
Badenoch denied this was “a very bad day” for the Conservatives, stating that defections to Reform UK showed “a lot of people have gone into politics for the wrong reasons.” The Tory leader said more details on the “irrefutable evidence” against Jenrick would come “in due course,” while dismissing him as “not my problem anymore” and Farage’s issue now.
The dramatic events have further exposed the rifts within the right of British politics, as the Conservatives struggle to contain the fallout from Jenrick’s high-profile switch to the Reform party. With the local elections looming in May, the battle for the future of the right-wing vote looks set to intensify in the coming weeks and months.