Robert Jenrick has hit back at Kemi Badenoch after his defection to Reform UK, claiming the “arsonists” who wrecked the Conservatives’ reputation remain in charge. The former shadow justice secretary, who quit the Tories on Thursday, said the party had not changed since the election and was incapable of fixing its mistakes.
In his first interview since the move, Jenrick told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “The people who’d made those mistakes were still sat around the shadow cabinet table, the arsonists were still in control of the party.” He insisted he had been frank about his intentions, despite telling the Conservative chief whip on Thursday he would never defect.
Badenoch earlier accused Jenrick of lying, saying: “You can’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth. This is a man who was asked yesterday morning, ‘Are you going to defect?’ And he said ‘never’ to the chief whip.” She added that Nigel Farage was “doing my spring cleaning for me” by taking away her problems.
Michael Gove likened Reform to “Slytherin” after the defection, while Nick Timothy, Jenrick’s replacement as shadow justice secretary, said voters were sick of “backbiting and backstabbing”. Jenrick urged other rightwingers to join Reform, writing in the Telegraph: “The future of the country is on the line.”
Labour dismissed Farage’s claims that a Labour defector would soon join Reform. Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “Nigel Farage says a lot of things and I think we should all take those with a pinch of salt.” A Labour source doubted the defector would be senior, noting Farage had never trailed a decent defector in advance.
