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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In her video, posted on X, she said her party was ‘rebuilding’ following their ‘painful’ 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.
His 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 making plans to take over.
Last April, he made headlines by calling for the Tories and Reform to ‘bring this coalition together’ at the next election.
The Newark MP’s comments were widely interpreted as supportive of combining the two parties together – something both Badenoch and Nigel Farage have spoken out against.
The 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 Edinburgh 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.
A Liberal Democrat source said the drama in the Conservative shadow cabinet ‘makes The Traitors roundtable look united’.
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