Robert Jenrick threw a hand grenade into the politics of the British Right on Thursday as he defected to Reform just hours after being outed as a Tory turncoat.
On a dramatic day at Westminster, the former Conservative leadership contender became the highest-profile defector to Nigel Farage’s insurgent party.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail on Thursday night, he said his all-conquering former colleagues now had as much chance of winning the next election as the Greens – and urged all centre-Right voters to ‘rally behind Nigel Farage’.
A senior Reform source said Mr Jenrick was set to be rewarded with the post of shadow chancellor with a brief to strengthen the party’s economic credentials.
The former immigration minister had been in secret talks with Mr Farage since September.
But his cover was blown after a Tory mole stumbled across a printed draft of his defection speech – a suggestion he was set to jump ship any day – and handed it to Kemi Badenoch.
The Conservative leader launched an extraordinary pre-emptive strike on her former rival.
In a video released just after 11am, Mrs Badenoch said she had sacked him and booted him out of the party after being presented with ‘clear irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible’.
Robert Jenrick threw a hand grenade into the politics of the British Right on Thursday as he defected to Nigel Farage’s Reform
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said she sacked Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick due to ‘irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect’ from the party
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In a warning designed to head off further defections, she added: ‘The British public are tired of political psychodrama and so am I. They saw too much of it in the last government, they’re seeing too much of it in this Government. I will not repeat those mistakes.’
Her intervention briefly plunged Mr Jenrick’s future into doubt before his defection was confirmed at a joint press conference with Mr Farage five hours later at which he launched a stinging all-out attack on the party he joined at 16.
Mr Jenrick said he would not fight a by-election in his Newark seat, claiming that his constituents were already aware of his views.
Mr Farage, meanwhile, thanked Mrs Badenoch for driving Mr Jenrick into his arms, saying the defection had only been ’60:40′ to happen at that point.
However, senior Tories believe he was only days away from quitting, despite having sat round the cabinet table just 24 hours earlier.
Mr Jenrick’s former colleagues rounded on him on Thursday night. One shadow cabinet minister described him as a ‘snake’ while another said he had ‘lost his mind’.
‘Jenrick became consumed with personal ambition, both in the last leadership election and then later when it looked like Kemi’s position might have been under threat,’ the source said.
‘When it became clear that in fact Kemi wasn’t going anywhere, Jenrick’s ambition was frustrated and now he’s done this stupid thing.’
The former Immigration Minister had been in secret talks with Mr Farage since September
In an impassioned defence of his choice, Mr Jenrick said: ‘If we don’t get the next government right Britain will likely slip beyond the point of repair’
His departure dismayed those warning that Labour can only be ousted at the next election if the Conservatives and Reform reach an accommodation to ‘unite the right’.
Mr Jenrick on Thursday told the Mail there is ‘not going to be a pact’, while Mr Farage insisted that the right could now only be united behind him.
Former Tory cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg urged the two parties to stop fighting and form a common front against Labour.
‘I think it remains absolutely essential in a first-past-the-post system that you have to unite your wing of politics. It is of the highest importance,’ he said.
‘I think it is the duty of the right to unite in the national interest because this Labour government is so incompetent. If they were doing a good job then the right could squabble.’
Amid rumours of further defections, Sir Jacob encouraged those on the right of the Tory party to stay, as those on the left ‘won’t do a deal’ with Reform.
Mr Farage and Mr Jenrick have repeatedly traded blows in the past. The Reform leader branded his Tory rival a ‘fraud’ after he toughened his stance on immigration.
As recently as March last year, Mr Jenrick said the Reform leader ‘can’t even run a five-a-side team, so he’s not going to be able to run a country’.
Speaking at the time, he said that although he had ‘sympathy’ with some of Reform’s views ‘they are not a serious party’.
Mr Jenrick admitted the two men had not always seen eye-to-eye.
But he said he was now convinced that only Mr Farage could beat Labour and turn the country around.
He told the Mail his former party had ‘betrayed every principle it ever had’, adding: ‘if you want to get rid of Keir Starmer, if you want to get rid of this failing Labor government and to turn the country around, you have to rally behind Nigel Farage and Reform.
Mr Jenrick is now one of six Reform MPs in the House of Commons, alongside Mr Farage, Richard Tice, Lee Anderson, Sarah Pochin and Danny Kruger
Mr Farage previously insisted he ‘always’ thought Mr Jenrick was a ‘fraud’
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‘The next election is going to be a choice between the country slipping further into decline or the country beginning its journey to future success and prosperity, and there will only be a choice between Starmer – or whichever failed Labour politician replaces him – and Nigel Farage.’
Mr Farage said the two men were now ‘on the same page on almost everything’.
The Reform leader denied cutting a deal with Mr Jenrick, saying: ‘I have not offered him a rank, position, title or money.’
But a senior Reform source said Mr Jenrick was set to be named as the party’s shadow chancellor in the coming weeks. The move could cause friction with the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice who had coveted the role.
Mr Farage warned other budding defectors to move fast, saying he would not take further applications after the local elections in May when he predicted the Conservatives would ‘cease to be a national party’.
He dismissed claims that Reform was becoming another version of the Tory party, saying he was turning down some would-be Conservative defectors – and revealing that he would unveil a prominent Labour supporter next week.
Keir Starmer celebrated the chaos on the Right, saying: ‘We’re seeing a flood of Tory politicians, ex-politicians, going across to Reform because they know that the Tory Party is a sinking ship.’
Jenrick’s journey from Tory leadership hopeful to Reform MP
Robert Jenrick’s unceremonious defenestration from the Conservative Party and unveiling by Reform is the latest tumultuous chapter in a checkered political journey.
Mr Jenrick, 44, who was pipped to the party leadership by Kemi Badenoch in late 2024, has long been tipped to abandon the struggling Tories and line up alongside Nigel Farage.
And today he did so, after being unceremoniously booted out by Mrs Badenoch.
He had raised eyebrows among commentators and his own colleagues as he appeared to regard every brief in the Shadow Cabinet as part of his responsibility.
As well as his mid-ranking justice brief, he would frequently dip into his former home affairs speciality, the Shadow chancellor’s role opposing the Treasury, defence, communities and housing to name a few.
Last May he made headlines when he filmed himself approaching three men at Stratford station in east London in an attempt to show the extent of fare dodging in the capital.
He has also been the subject of comment over his noticeable weight loss, finally admitting he had used weight-loss drugs.
While denying he was planning to defect to Reform he made several warm overtures towards Mr Farage, even when it went against Mrs Badenoch’s party line.
In April he was recorded proposing a ‘coalition’ to unite Tory and Reform UK voters at the next election.
He told Conservative students that ‘one way or another’ centre-Right voters had to be united to ensure Keir Starmer does not ‘sail through the middle’ again.
But just six weeks ago he publicly denied he was going anywhere, telling Times Radio: ‘It wasn’t very long ago that I was running to be leader of the Conservative Party so I’m not going anywhere.’
Mr Jenrick, who was born in Wolverhampton and raised in Shropshire, had working class parents but went on to attend Cambridge.
He trained as a solicitor and previously worked in corporate law at leading international law firms in London and Moscow.
During his Tory leadership election campaign the father of three made much of his humble roots.
He later posed with his parents and his wife, Michal Berkner, who is nine years his senior and made headlines herself with her unhappy response to him losing the leadership election.
Having won Newark in a 2014 by-election (which included Mr Farage), Theresa May promoted him to a Treasury minister in January 2018.
Ms May’s demise saw him climb higher, with Boris Johnson promoting him to secretary of state for housing, communities and local government when the former prime minister took office in July 2019.
But his time around the cabinet table ended in controversy, when he was sacked after a string of high-profile and damaging incidents, including the unlawful approval of a Tory donor’s housing development and eyebrow-raising journeys during lockdown.
The arrival of Liz Truss in Number 10 saw him return to Government for a short stint in the Department of Health.
Then in October 2022, with Rishi Sunak taking the top job, Mr Jenrick was appointed immigration minister.
But despite Mr Sunak’s stated commitment to do ‘everything it takes’ to make the Rwanda scheme operational, Mr Jenrick shocked Westminster by resigning and becoming one of the PM’s most strident backbench Tory critics.
