In a dramatic political rupture, former Conservative minister Robert Jenrick has officially defected to Reform UK, burning his bridges with the Tory party in a blistering series of attacks on its leadership and record.
A Stinging Denunciation of Conservative Failures
The move, unveiled at a press conference in Westminster on Thursday, came just 24 hours after Jenrick sat around the Shadow Cabinet table. He was subsequently sacked as shadow justice secretary by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who cited 'irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect'.
Jenrick did not hold back in his criticism. He declared the Conservative Party 'rotten' and 'no longer fit for purpose', accusing it of betraying its principles and breaking Britain. 'There was hardly a principle they didn't betray,' he stated, listing failures on tax, debt, defence, welfare, and law and order.
He saved particular scorn for the party's handling of immigration, despite his own tenure as immigration minister. He blamed Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel for the points-based system that led to an 'explosion in arrivals' and said he had no faith the Tories would ever get a grip on the issue.
Dismissing Badenoch and Ruling Out a Pact
While insisting he had 'respect' for Kemi Badenoch, who defeated him in the Tory leadership contest, Jenrick brutally dismissed her chances of reviving the party's fortunes or becoming Prime Minister. 'I respect Kemi,' he told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview. 'But Kemi has as much chance of being the next prime minister as Zack Polanski [the Green Party leader].'
He also definitively ruled out any future electoral pact between the Conservatives and Reform, a idea he was once seen as potentially brokering. 'There's not going to be a pact,' he declared. 'Why would people who feel the Conservative Party let them down want to invest in them the future of the country?'
Instead, he urged voters to rally behind Nigel Farage and Reform UK as the only way to defeat Labour at the next election. 'If you want to get rid of Keir Starmer, if you want to get rid of this failing Labour Government and turn the country round then you have to rally behind Nigel Farage and Reform.'
Farage's Coup and the Promise of More Defections
Reform leader Nigel Farage, who boasted that Jenrick had been 'handed to me on a plate', introduced him as the party's sixth sitting MP. Jenrick becomes the most high-profile defector since the election, joining Lee Anderson and Danny Kruger. A further 21 former MPs, including ex-chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, have also switched allegiance.
In a moment of farce, Jenrick initially failed to appear on stage as announced, prompting Farage to joke he had changed his mind. The Newark MP confirmed he would not trigger a by-election. Farage concluded the event by teasing another major defection, this time from the Labour Party, to be revealed next week.
Jenrick revealed his plans were long in the making, having first approached Reform in September. His defection marks a significant moment in the realignment of the British right, delivering a powerful new voice to Reform's front bench and a devastating indictment of the Conservative Party's recent era.
