Kemi Badenoch bids to steady Tories after Robert Jenrick’s defection to Reform

Kemi Badenoch will seek to steady the Tory ship after her party was rocked by Robert Jenrick’s defection to Reform.

The Conservative Party leader sacked him from her shadow frontbench and kicked him out of the party after finding evidence he was “plotting in secret” to join Reform.

He did just that in a press conference at Reform headquarters hours later which was originally intended to focus on delays to local elections.

Sitting beside Nigel Farage, the Newark MP said his former party had “failed in government” and that they are “not sorry”.

He said most of his former Tory colleagues “don’t have the stomach for the radical change this country needs”.

He added: “It does not take me one blink of an eyelid to say to you that I want Nigel to be our prime minister after the next general election.

“That is the only way we will save our country and so patriotic people who share my views have to rally behind Nigel and Reform right now.”

Mrs Badenoch announced she was sacking Mr Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removing the whip and suspending his party membership in a post on X on Thursday.

“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,” she said.

A mole in Mr Jenrick’s team is believed to have passed on a draft of his resignation speech and media plan for his planned defection to Reform UK, according to reports, after earlier suggestions the document had been found “lying around”.

Mr Farage said Mrs Badenoch had “jumped the gun” and that Mr Jenrick “might not have joined at all”.

However, Mr Jenrick said he had “resolved to leave” the Tories before he was sacked but that “I didn’t know I was going to leave today”.

He will join Reform UK’s “frontline team” alongside five other MPs including Danny Kruger, who became the first sitting Conservative MP to defect to the party in September.

West Sussex Tory MP Nick Timothy, a former Home Office adviser to Theresa May, is taking over as shadow justice secretary.

Mr Jenrick insisted he had not spoken to any of his Tory colleagues about them following suit and switching to Reform.

Mrs Badenoch told the Press Association on Thursday: “The people who are dishonest and try and hurt other people are leaving the Conservative Party and going to Reform so my message to Nigel Farage is Robert Jenrick is not my problem, he’s your problem.”

She is expected to face further questions on the matter when she speaks to reporters at an Aberdeen-based training provider on Friday morning.

She will be accompanied by Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay and shadow secretary of state for Scotland Andrew Bowie.