Nigel Farage unveiled Robert Jenrick as his newest Reform MP tonight – hours after the former minister was brutally sacked by the Tories.
Mr Farage boasted that Mr Jenrick had been ‘handed to me on a plate’ by Kemi Badenoch as he held a press conference in Westminster this evening.
Bizarrely Mr Jenrick failed to appear for several minutes after he was invited up on stage, prompting awkward time-filling from Mr Farage. But when he finally arrived he said: ‘It’s time for the truth.’
He said the Tories had ‘betrayed voters’ and ‘most of the party’ had ‘lost its way’, lacking the ‘stomach’ for ‘real change’.
Mr Jenrick said a key moment had been at a shadow cabinet meeting when his colleagues tried to deny that Britain is ‘broken’.
‘Over the last year I have realised that I was naive… I respect Kemi. But I don’t trust the Conservative Party on immigration.’
He added: ‘I can’t kid myself any more.’
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.’
Mr Jenrick added of Mr Farage: ‘I don’t agree with everything he’s ever said, and he definitely won’t have agreed with everything I’ve ever said. But in retrospect, I see that in this period when the two main parties were failing Britain, Nigel was all too often a lone voice of common sense.’
The moment marked the culmination of a day of high drama and confusion that could decide the shape of British politics for years.
Mrs Badenoch kicked off the chaos by announcing that she had seen ‘irrefutable evidence’ Mr Jenrick was intending to betray her. ‘He’s Nigel Farage‘s problem now,’ she swiped.
Mr Jenrick is alleged to have left the text of a near-completed resignation speech and a ‘media plan’ lying around where it could be discovered – although when challenged by the Tory chief whip Rebecca Harris in a phone call this morning he apparently protested his innocence.
The Conservatives released some details of the text this evening, claiming that Mr Jenrick had been intending to say: ‘If like me, you’ve backed another party but know it’s lost its way, don’t stay. Don’t stay in a party that hasn’t been loyal to you. When your country needs you.’
Nigel Farage boasted that Robert Jenrick had been ‘handed to me on a plate’ as he held a press conference in Westminster this evening
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said she has sacked shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick due to ‘irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect’ from the party
Nick Timothy, a respected figure on the Right of the party, has been installed in the vacant shadow frontbench post.
Mrs Badenoch seemed to time her ambush carefully so Mr Farage was grilled on the breaking news during a visit to Scotland this morning.
He denied that he had been about to unveil Mr Jenrick as a defector, accusing Mrs Badenoch of ‘panic’.
But he confirmed that they had been in talks, adding: ‘I’ll give him a ring this afternoon… I might even buy him a pint, you never know.’
Even when arriving for the press conference this afternoon, Mr Farage said he had ‘yet to decide’ whether Mr Jenrick would be allowed to join.
Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake called Mr Jenrick ‘treacherous’, ‘disloyal’ and ‘unforgivable’, stressing there is ‘no way back’.
One MP told the Daily Mail that the only tears they were crying over the departure were ‘of laughter’. ‘That woman has got some cojones,’ they added.
However, Mr Farage goaded that he would ‘buy Kemi lunch next week and say thank you’ as he confirmed the defection this evening.
‘I’ve had to think very quickly as to how I should respond to this, and I just want to say thank you to Kemi Badenoch, this is the latest Christmas present I’ve ever had,’ the Reform UK leader told a press conference.
‘The negotiations with Jenrick are over. There’s nothing more to be said or to be done. You’ve handed me on a plate the man that is by far the most popular figure, 60 per cent approval rating on ConHome…
‘You’ve perhaps today, really done anything more than anybody in history to help realign the centre-right of British politics, which is much needed against a dreadful Labour Government and increasingly worrying extreme left-wing voice in this country.
‘So I can’t offer you drinks all round, but I’ll buy Kemi lunch next week and say thank you. And on that note, I will welcome Robert Jenrick into this room and into Reform UK.’
Mr Jenrick said his ‘first loyalty’ is to ‘our country’ as he said ‘both Labour and the Conservatives broke Britain’.
He said they were ‘committed to a set of ideas that have failed’, accusing Labour of starting mass migration and the Tories of failing to stop it.
Dropping her bombshell in a video posted on social media at 11.06am, Mrs Badenoch said: ‘I have sacked Robert Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removed the whip and suspended his party membership with immediate effect.
‘I was presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible to his shadow cabinet colleagues and the wider Conservative Party.
‘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.’
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.’
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 Jenrick said his ‘first loyalty’ is to ‘our country’ as he said ‘both Labour and the Conservatives broke Britain’
The Reform chief has already unveiled one high-profile Tory recruit this week, with former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi jumping ship.
Mr Jenrick is said to have raised suspicions by consorting with senior Reform figures, including having dinner with Mr Farage himself last month.
Meanwhile, Mrs Badenoch’s own position is seen as having strengthened recently, after a string of potent performances at Tory conference and in the Commons sparked an uptick in the polls.
Mr Jenrick was defeated by Mrs Badenoch for the Tories’ top job in November 2024.
However, he constantly fuelled speculation about his ambitions by roving well beyond his justice portfolio.
There were persistent rumours linking him with a move to Reform, but he has previously played the idea down.
On December 4 Mr Jenrick said: ‘It wasn’t very long ago that I was running to be leader of the Conservative Party so I’m not going anywhere.’
Some big players in Reform have also suggested they would not want him, while Mr Farage previously insisted he ‘always’ thought Mr Jenrick was a ‘fraud’.
The Lib Dems jibed that the Tories looked to be recreating scenes from hit TV game show The Traitors.
At a press conference in Scotland this morning Mr Farage was coy about how advanced his talks with Mr Jenrick has been.
‘I’m very surprised that this news is broken,’ he said.
Asked if he had been speaking to Mr Jenrick, the Reform leader said: ‘I never reveal private conversations of anybody, which is why when people like Malcolm (Offord) came to me to talk, and he was a frontbencher, nothing ever leaked.
‘I’m going to say that I’ve had conversations with a number of very senior Conservatives over the course of the last week, over the course of the last month.’
Pressed again about whether he had spoken to the now ex-shadow justice secretary, Mr Farage said: ‘Of course I’ve talked to Robert Jenrick. Was I on the verge of signing a document with him? No. But have we had conversations? Yes.’
Mr Farage added: ‘I think virtually every Conservative is considering leaving the Conservatives, yes.’
Asked if this included Mr Jenrick, he replied: ‘I think that’s been in his mind, yes. I’ve little doubt it’s been in his mind.’
Mr Hollinrake told the BBC: ‘It’s fair to say Rob didn’t take losing the leadership contest very well, so I think it’s been difficult at times with Rob trying to get him on side.
‘We didn’t expect this. We didn’t want this. But having seen what we’ve seen, there was no other course of action Kemi could take.’
He told Radio 5 Live’s Matt Chorley show that the sources for the information were sensitive, but added: ‘I’ve seen the evidence. It is compelling, it is irrefutable and it is damning.’
A Tory source said of Mr Jenrick: ‘We have had lots of reports coming in that he was meeting with Reform. He went for dinner with Nigel Farage last month, he had been speaking to people within Westminster about the possibility of a defection.
‘His team has spoken to various people, including journalists, about defection.
‘Kemi doesn’t take decisions lightly, she thinks about these things, she analyses things properly. But the evidence was just totally irrefutable that this was going to be done to inflict maximum pain on the party.’
One Tory ally of Mr Jenrick cast doubt over whether anyone would follow him out the door.
They told the Daily Mail they are ‘going nowhere’, adding: ‘I don’t think anyone else is leaving either.’
Nadine Dorries, one of the first big Conservative names to defect to Reform, said Mrs Badenoch had taken the ‘least worst’ of all the ‘worst’ options she faced.
But the ex-minister told GB News that the leader looked ‘scared’ and ‘weak’.
‘She’s acting like a wife who’s discovered that her husband is having an affair and she’s thrown his clothes onto the driveway,’ she said.
Former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said he initially thought reports of the sacking were an ‘AI fake’.
The Tory told Sky News that Mrs Badenoch needs to release proof of Mr Jenrick’s looming betrayal.
‘If the evidence is there she has made a really bold move that will strengthen her leadership. It makes her look decisive capable and strong,’ he said.
If on the other hand the evidence is not there then she has kneecapped a potential challenger for the leadership… it is either a very good decision or a very bad one.’
Ex-chancellor George Osborne also warned that the ‘psychodrama’ in the Tories is ‘just beginning’.
He told the Political Currency podcast: ‘Is Kemi Badenoch forcing his hand or has her hand been forced because he’d already made his decision? She’s certainly saying she’d seen evidence he was about to defect.
‘Then that is the proper beginning of the civil war inside right about who is going to lead the right, and what are Tory MPs going to do?
‘Are they going to defect to Reform? Is the pressure going to grow to have an alliance with Reform? Or are they going to say, look, the Jenricks of this world can leave, but we think the future lies with the Tory party…
‘If she thinks the psychodrama is over, I’m afraid it’s just beginning.’
Join the debate
Is this strong leadership from Badenoch or a sign of Tory chaos?
The Lib Dems jibed that the Tories looked to be recreating scenes from hit TV game show The Traitors
Mr Farage previously insisted he ‘always’ thought Mr Jenrick was a ‘fraud’
Nigel Farage seemed to be alerted to the breaking news by a press officer as he was unveiling the party’s new leader in Scotland
The Conservative councillor for the Newark West ward on Nottinghamshire County Council has said he feels ‘totally betrayed’ by Mr Jenrick.
Keith Girling said: ‘I’m obviously very, very, very disappointed in Robert. I’m a great believer in loyalty and he’s shown a complete lack of loyalty there.
‘I think Kemi has done absolutely the right thing when she finds evidence of what he’s plotting to do. She’s shown real leadership there to sack him, kick him out of the party, and we’ll deal with the aftermath.’
Asked if he felt betrayed, Mr Girling said: ‘Totally betrayed. We’ve supported Robert with his political ambition, you know, he obviously wanted to be the leader (of the Conservative Party).
‘Clearly he was disappointed he didn’t get that. But that’s not down to the efforts of this association who’s always supported him, you know, and he’s really just sort of turned his back on all that, on that loyalty, and gone his own way.
‘I think that’s quite shameful, really.’
Keir Starmer said Mrs Badenoch had only ‘got round’ to sacking Mr Jenrick when he was about to defect, branding her ‘weak’.
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.
