Robert Jenrick burned all bridges with the Conservatives on Thursday as he rounded on Kemi Badenoch and other senior figures just 24 hours after sitting around the Shadow Cabinet table with them.
At a press conference to unveil his defection to Reform, Mr Jenrick repeatedly insisted he had ‘respect’ for Mrs Badenoch, who pipped him to the Tory leadership.
But in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail he derided her chances of turning around the party’s fortunes.
‘I respect Kemi,’ he said. ‘But Kemi has as much chance of being the next prime minister as Zack Polanski [the Green Party leader].’
Mr Jenrick, who was once seen as a possible broker for a deal between the Conservatives and Reform, yesterday declared the idea dead.
‘There’s not going to be a pact,’ he said. ‘Why would people who feel the Conservative Party let them down want to invest in them the future of the country? That’s not going to happen.
‘The way to beat Labour at the next election… if you want to get rid of Keir Starmer, if you want to get rid of this failing Labour Government and turn the country round then you have to rally behind Nigel Farage and Reform.’
Earlier, he had also launched attacks on Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride, who he blamed for Britain’s ballooning welfare bill, and Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel, who he said was responsible for the points-based immigration system which led to an explosion in arrivals.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘I don’t believe for one minute that the Conservative Party would get a grip on immigration, that the Conservative Party will reform our benefit system, that the Conservative Party will get growth going again in the economy, because it hasn’t apologised for the mistakes it made when it was in office, and it’s still led by exactly the same people.’
On a day of political high drama, the former Tory justice spokesman said his former party ‘lacked the stomach’ for the change the country needed.
He revealed he had first approached Reform’s leader in September and resolved to quit at some point.
But he was left with little choice on Thursday following Mrs Badenoch’s decision to sack him after rumbling his resignation plans. At a dramatic press conference, Mr Farage unveiled Reform’s sixth MP, who he said would sit on the party’s front bench.
A moment of farce threatened to overshadow the event when Mr Jenrick failed to appear as he was announced, prompting Mr Farage to joke that he’d changed his mind.
But he soon took to the stage to launch into a scathing denunciation of his former party, as well as Labour. ‘The two main parties are rotten. They are no longer fit for purpose. They both broke Britain, and neither can fix it,’ he said.
In a devastating critique of his party’s record, he said that while Labour had started mass migration, the Tories had ‘ramped it up’, leaving out his own stint as immigration minister. He said his former party had ‘failed in government’, adding: ‘There was hardly a principle they didn’t betray.’
‘Our taxes? They were left at a 70-year high. Sound money? Well, the debt tripled. Defence? Utterly hollowed out. Work should pay? Welfare exploded. Law and order? Prisons overflowed,’ he said, adding: ‘I can’t, in good conscience, stick with a party that’s failed so badly, that isn’t sorry, that hasn’t changed, that I know in my heart won’t – can’t – deliver what’s needed.’
The Newark MP also said he would not resign to force a by-election in his Commons seat.
Mr Farage concluded the press conference by saying he would unveil a Labour defection next week. Prior to Mr Jenrick, two sitting MPs – Lee Anderson and Danny Kruger, Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff – had joined Mr Farage’s party.
Another 21 former MPs have also defected, including Nadhim Zahawi, the former chancellor, who announced his decision on Monday, and former culture secretary Nadine Dorries.
