Kemi Badenoch emerges stronger from Jenrick’s messy split from Tories
It is never ideal in politics to have a senior colleague defect, hurling insults as they depart, but as the dust settles on Robert Jenrick’s move to Reform UK, many of the remaining Conservative MPs agree on one thing: it has left Kemi Badenoch stronger.“Historically, the party has suffered from two weaknesses: too many people trying to bring down the leader, and not enough leaders getting rid of those people,” one shadow minister said.“Hopefully now we’re all pulling in the same direction.Losing a senior shadow minister is not ideal.But given those basic facts, the day could hardly have gone better.
”Badenoch set the agenda in pre-empting Jenrick’s likely defection by sacking him as shadow justice minister and stripping him of the Tory whip, leaving the Newark MP and Reform UK to play catchup with a late afternoon press conference.At that event there were slightly farcical scenes as Jenrick initially failed to appear when Nigel Farage announced him.Tory sources say they believe this was because they had just tweeted extracts of his defection speech, obtained by Badenoch’s office, leaving Jenrick making frantic last-minute changes to the address.“[Thursday] was really brutal and should give anyone else pause for thought,” another shadow minister said.“It cemented Kemi’s position as a robust leader, but it also showed that members – and probably the country – don’t like traitors.
Kemi was right when she said he’s Nigel’s problem now.When I’ve talked to members, the phrase ‘good riddance’ has come up a lot.He’s not been helpful for a while.”Another MP was more brutal still: “Nobody cares about this.The internal WhatsApp groups are almost silent.
”The big question for Badenoch and for Farage is whether any more sitting Tory MPs follow Jenrick before Reform’s self-imposed May deadline for defections.One of the most commonly cited names tipped to also make the move has insisted they are staying put, and others say Jenrick spent recent months more focused on his own profile than building a team of allies.The MP linked with Reform said not only were they staying put but they did not expect others to defect.“My sense is not,” they said.“I think it has really solidified people in the other direction.
What Robert did looks really blatant and cunning.People really hate that.And the personal attacks on colleagues were really classless.”Another MP said: “Reform are the main challengers in my constituency, so there is an appeal.But polling can change, and why annoy so many people? As one of the remaining Conservative MPs, it’s a privilege to help rebuild the party.
And anyway, who wants to be in the same club as Andrea Jenkyns?”Others are less certain.“These things are always difficult to predict,” a shadow minister said.“There are people who clearly thought that Jenrick should be leader.They are going to have to figure out how to be a team player – or go.”While polling can change, Badenoch’s biggest problem is that for the most part it is not changing very much.
The YouGov tracker of voting intentions shows Tory support has risen recently to about 20% after months of languishing at closer to 16% or 17%.Badenoch’s standing with her MPs and, to an extent, ordinary Tory members has arguably risen more steeply since a generally well-received Conservative conference speech in October and a blistering response to Rachel Reeves’ budget the following month.“At least 40 people have, separately, mentioned the budget speech to me,” one Conservative MP said.“It’s amazing how little infighting there is.We’re all focused on getting [Keir] Starmer out.
”This might be true for now but even though a poor showing in May’s Scottish, Welsh and English local elections is factored into calculations about Badenoch’s future, a result on current polling levels could be seen as sufficiently disastrous to change some minds,For now, quite a few Tory MPs are simply enjoying Jenrick’s departure,He had been in talks with Reform for months but nothing had been decided until Badenoch forced his hand,“It’s all so messy,” one said,“His departure is like some sort of horrible arranged marriage, carried out simply to spite one side of the family.
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Kemi Badenoch emerges stronger from Jenrick’s messy split from Tories
It is never ideal in politics to have a senior colleague defect, hurling insults as they depart, but as the dust settles on Robert Jenrick’s move to Reform UK, many of the remaining Conservative MPs agree on one thing: it has left Kemi Badenoch stronger.“Historically, the party has suffered from two weaknesses: too many people trying to bring down the leader, and not enough leaders getting rid of those people,” one shadow minister said. “Hopefully now we’re all pulling in the same direction. Losing a senior shadow minister is not ideal. But given those basic facts, the day could hardly have gone better
Ex-councillor jailed for stalking former Conservative MP Penny Mordaunt
A former councillor has been jailed for 20 weeks after stalking Penny Mordaunt, which the former cabinet minister said left her fearing “sexual violence”.Edward Brandt, a professional sailor, had been found guilty of the offence but was acquitted of a more serious charge of stalking involving serious alarm or distress.The trial was told he sent at least 17 emails and three phone messages to Mordaunt, as well as turning up at her Portsmouth constituency office out-of-hours between 11 September 2023 and 12 May 2024.She said in a statement to police that she “feared sexual violence” because of the defendant’s “creepy” behaviour.Brandt, 61, was also sentenced for seven breaches in December last year of a stalking protection order, in place until November 2034, by failing to notify police of devices capable of connecting to the internet and of the creation of accounts on Facebook and Snapchat
A linguistic own goal from Starmer’s critics | Letters
Jonathan Liew links rude football chants to the unmerited personal abuse which Keir Starmer is currently receiving (When crowds direct offensive chants at Keir Starmer, who’s to blame? I’m afraid he is, 13 January).Football managers are frequently the target for similar treatment. Like them, Starmer has to set his team’s strategy and tactics and produce results that please supporters.No matter that he saved his side from relegation and gained promotion last season, things are not going as well as expected – hence the abuse. In style and charisma, he may be more Sean Dyche than Carlo Ancelotti, and as an Arsenal fan, he should get some tips from Mikel Arteta
Reform UK’s London mayor candidate condemned for burqa stop and search remarks
Reform UK’s mayoral candidate for London has been accused of endangering Muslims after she said women wearing the burqa should be subject to stop and search.Laila Cunningham, who was announced as Reform’s candidate for the 2028 mayoral elections last week, said no one should cover their face “in an open society”, adding: “It has to be assumed that if you’re hiding your face, you’re hiding it for a criminal reason.”Cunningham told the Standard podcast: “If you go to parts of London, it does feel like a Muslim city. The signs are written in a different language. You’ve got burqas being sold in markets
Jenrick says he hopes his defection to Reform UK will ‘unite the right’ after Badenoch says he ‘tells a lot of lies’ – as it happened
Robert Jenrick is now speaking exclusively to Laura Kuenssberg at BBC News and says he hopes his defection will “unite the right”.He said:This is uniting the right. My message for millions of people in the country who stuck with the Conservative party, often through gritted teeth because like me they were deeply frustrated, angry even, about what happened.They voted again in 2024 and many of those voters have now come to Reform over the course of the last year or so – but there are still people sticking with the party.If you want to get rid of this Labour government and have a strong reforming government to fix the country, there is frankly only one way to do that … that is to vote for Nigel and rally behind him and Reform
Tory ‘arsonists’ still in charge of party, says Jenrick as he hits back at Badenoch
The “arsonists” who tanked the reputation of the Conservatives are still in charge of the party, Robert Jenrick has said as he and the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, trade blows a day after his dramatic defection to Reform UK.Giving his first interview since his announcement on Thursday, the former shadow justice secretary said the Conservatives had not changed since the election, while defending himself against allegations of lying from his former party leader.He told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Friday: “I came to the conclusion over the course of the last year or so that … the party hadn’t changed, that the people who’d made those mistakes were still sat around the shadow cabinet table, the arsonists were still in control of the party, and that this was not a party that was capable of even understanding what it had got wrong, let alone fixing it.”Jenrick insisted “I could not have been franker” about his intentions, despite telling the Conservative chief whip on Thursday he would never defect – an act that Badenoch said showed he “tells a lot of lies”.In her own set of broadcast interviews hours earlier, Badenoch said: “You can’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth
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