As Robert Jenrick settles himself into his new role as Reform’s sixth MP, spare a thought for his wife.
Michal Berkner is said to be a powerful driver of his political career, with former Conservative colleagues describing her as a ‘force of nature’.
Nine years his senior, she is a high-flying corporate lawyer whose role as the main family breadwinner allowed Mr Jenrick, 44, to embark on his quest for high office.
And she has, naturally, been by his side at the high points of his career, as well as the low. Now she faces the task of helping him define a role in his new home and deflect the criticism coming his way over the manner of his move.
When he ran to be leader of the Conservatives little more than two years ago, she was a high-profile part of his team at the party conference, where it pays to point out you are a regular family man/woman to gain votes.
She is also said to have been the one who got her formerly tubby husband to take the slimming drug Ozempic, once telling an event people said remarked that she looked younger than him, despite being nine years his senior.
A Tory source told the the Times at the time she believed the medication was ‘the cure for everything’, and he admitted taking it for a short time, combining it with sensible eating, exercise and a wider makeover to reinvent himself.
However, she made headlines herself when he was pipped to the top job by Kemi Badenoch, who yesterday sacked him after undeniable evidence of a move to Reform landed on her desk.
In full view of TV cameras in November 2024, Ms Berkner began applauding Ms Badenoch’s win alongside her beaten husband before trying to give up after a few seconds.
But she started again with a roll of her eyes as she realised that everyone else around her – including her defeated spouse – had kept going.
She then congratulated the party leader with a somewhat rictus grin before Ms Badenoch made her way to the stage to give her first speech as leader.
Her displeasure was obvious to watching social media users. One quipped: ‘Robert Jenrick’s ”gracious loser” face needs work. His wife’s attempt is non-existent.’
The couple, who have three children, met when they both worked at Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom – a New York law firm which has done work for Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, including Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich.
Ms Berkner worked for the firm for 17 years but is now a partner at Baker McKenzie in London, where she is head of EMEA Biopharma and Deep Tech Transactions, working on multi-million-pound deals in the pharmaceuticals industry.
She was born in Israel and raised there and in the United States, but has UK citizenship, and is a polyglot who speaks three languages. Her grandparents were Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust.
But behind the legal training is a love of gardening, antiques, Abba and Eurovision.
And, clearly, houses. At one point Mr Jenrick was branded ‘The Four Houses Secretary’ due to their extensive joint real testate holdings.
In 2009 they bought a Grade I-listed country pile, a stunning 17th-century manor house in Herefordshire, for £1.1 million.
She bought a flat in Marylebone, Central London, in 2004 for £850,000, and in 2013, shortly before Mr Jenrick became an MP, they shelled out a further £2.5 million to purchase a townhouse in Westminster, less than a mile from Parliament.
Mr Jenrick’s successor in the shadow cabinet today said the public are ‘sick of the backstabbing’ and insisted the Tories are ‘more united’ under Kemi Badenoch after the senior MP defected to Reform UK.
Nick Timothy, who took over Mr Jenrick’s justice brief after he was pre-emptively sacked by the Opposition leader, said Conservative MPs had reacted with ‘resolve’ to his departure.
Mrs Badenoch kicked Mr Jenrick off the Tory frontbench and suspended his party membership on Thursday, citing evidence he was ‘plotting in secret’ to join Nigel Farage’s party.
The move followed months of speculation about the Newark MP’s ambitions, during which he strayed well beyond his justice brief and built a prominent social media presence with campaigns on immigration and crime.
Asked about his departure on Friday, new shadow justice secretary Mr Timothy described Mr Jenrick as a friend but said voters were tired of ‘the backbiting and the backstabbing’ in politics.
During his first morning media round in his new role, the West Suffolk MP told BBC Breakfast: ‘Rob’s been a friend of mine for some time.
‘It’s obviously disappointing that he’s decided to move on, but the thing is, what we learned yesterday is the clear contrast between the Conservatives led by Kemi Badenoch and the other parties and what they offer Britain today.
‘The public are sick of the backbiting and the backstabbing and the lack of seriousness in our political parties when the challenges that the country faces are so serious.
‘Kemi was given irrefutable evidence of what was about to happen, and she acted very decisively.’
Mr Timothy has not spoken to his shadow cabinet predecessor since the sacking, which was prompted by a member of staff believed to be within Mr Jenrick’s own team leaking his plans to the Tory leader’s office.
The Newark MP is the latest in a series of high-profile Tories to switch allegiance to Mr Farage’s insurgent right-wing party, following former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and sitting MP Danny Kruger.
