Robert Jenrick has been sacked as shadow justice secretary over a supposed ‘secret plot’ to defect from the Conservatives.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch posted a video online accusing her one-time leadership rival of planning to exit ‘in a way designed to be as damaging as possible’ to the party and colleagues.
She also confirmed the Conservative whip had been removed from Jenrick following ‘clear, irrefutable evidence’ of the plot.
Badenoch said: ‘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.’
The Times reported that the leader made her decision after her team found a copy of Jenrick’s resignation speech ‘lying around’.
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According to the newspaper, the material was discovered earlier this week and the sacked shadow minister was taken by surprise when he was called by Tory chief whip Rebecca Harris today.
In her video, posted on X, Badenoch said her party was ‘rebuilding’ following their ‘painful’ defeat at the 2024 election.
Badenoch continued: ‘When individuals choose to walk away from that effort for personal ambition, it tells you nothing about the Conservative Party and everything you need to know about them.’
Jenrick quickly became one of the highest-profile members of Badenoch’s shadow cabinet after she beat him to the top job in autumn 2024.
The Newark MP’s slick social media videos – including one in which he confronted fare dodgers on the London Underground – and attention-grabbing statements led some to question if he was still planning to take over.
He was seen as the main force pushing the Tories towards Reform UK’s territory on the populist right, by going beyond the party line on issues such as banning the burqa.
Last April, he made headlines by calling for the Tories and Reform to ‘bring this coalition together’ at the next election.
His comments were widely interpreted as supportive of combining the two parties together – something both Badenoch and Nigel Farage have spoken out against.
Today’s news comes two days after former Tory Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi announced he was the latest figure to defect to Reform UK.
Farage confirmed this morning that ‘of course’ he had had conversations with Jenrick, but denied he was planning to unveil him as a new Reform member at a press conference in London today.
He told reporters he would ‘give [Jenrick] a ring this afternoon’, adding: ‘I might even buy him a pint.’
Farage was in the Scottish town of Kirkcaldy this morning to unveil Lord Malcolm Offord, another Conservative defector, as the party’s leader in Scotland ahead of major Holyrood elections later this year.
Speaking to Sky News, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer asked why Badenoch had taken ‘so long’ to sack her shadow justice secretary.
He said: ‘Jenrick’s been making toxic comments to try and divide our country for months and months and months, and it’s only now when he’s on the verge of defecting to Reform that Badenoch gets around to sacking him.’
A Liberal Democrat source said the drama in the Conservative shadow cabinet ‘makes The Traitors roundtable look united’.
They added: ‘The country deserves better than a clapped out Labour government and the same old Conservative chaos.’
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