Jenrick defects to Reform UK after being sacked by Tories

[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nn8 minutes agoShareSaveJennifer McKiernan,Political reporterandJoshua Nevett,Political reporterShareSaveFormer Conservative shadow minister Robert Jenrick has announced he is joining Reform UK, hours after he was sacked by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch for plotting to defect to Nigel Farage’s party.Jenrick was unveiled at a press conference by Farage, who thanked Badenoch for expelling her former Tory leadership rival and helping “realign the centre-right of British politics”.In a tirade against his old party and former colleagues, Jenrick said the Conservatives “broke” the country, were “rotten” and had “betrayed its voters”.Speaking minutes before he took to the stage, Badenoch said it was a “good day” for the Conservatives and Jenrick was “now Nigel Farage’s problem”.Jenrick becomes the second sitting Tory MP – after Danny Kruger in September 2025 – to switch to Farage’s party, which has been consistently leading in national opinion polls for months.It also follows the defection of former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi this week, and about 20 former Tory MPs to Farage’s party, which now has six sitting MPs in the House of Commons.Jenrick’s switch to Reform UK was the culmination of a dramatic day that started with Badenoch posting a video to announce he had been dismissed from her shadow cabinet and suspended as a Conservative Party member.In the video, she said: “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.”Hours passed without a response from Jenrick, as Conservative sources told the BBC his plans had been rumbled after materials, including a defection speech, had been found “lying around”.When Farage appeared at a press conference in Westminster on Thursday afternoon, he said he “had to think very quickly as to how I should respond to this”.Farage said that, while he had been talking to Jenrick for months, he had not intended to present him as the party’s latest Tory defector at the press conference.But he thanked Badenoch for what he called “the latest Christmas present I’ve ever had” before Jenrick walked on stage, following an awkward delay, to join the Reform UK leader.”It’s time for the truth,” Jenrick said in his speech. “Britain has been in decline. Britain is in decline.”He added: “Both Labour and the Conservatives broke Britain. And both are now dominated by those without the competence or backbone needed to fix it.”He said the Conservatives were in denial about the state of Britain and called out some of his former shadow cabinet colleagues by name in a string of personal criticisms. He said shadow chancellor Mel Stride had “oversaw the explosion of the welfare bill” and “blocked the reforms needed” when he was the work and pensions secretary.Dame Priti Patel, Jenrick said, had allowed a “million migrants to come here” in what he called “the greatest failure of any British government in the post-war period”.Jenrick – a former housing secretary and immigration minister – served alongside both Stride and Patel in the Conservative governments led by Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.While Jenrick accepted he had roles in governments that had “failed so badly”, he said he had been “let down” by Johnson and Sunak.Questioned by journalists, Jenrick said he had already “resolved to leave” the Conservatives his sacking, saying it was something he had “given a great deal of thought to over a very long time”.He said he would not resign to force a by-election in his Newark constituency and stand as a Reform UK candidate.He also had no ambitions to lead Reform UK, he said, telling reporters “I want Nigel …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]