Robert Jenrick urged Tories to ‘take our country’ back today as he warned the ‘old order’ is collapsing – and took a brutal shot at ‘activist’ judges.
In his keynote speech to party conference, the shadow justice secretary said Brits were sick of decline and wanted to ‘fight’.
He acknowledged it was ‘tough being a Tory’ at the moment, with dire polls and another host of councillor defections to Reform this morning.
But Mr Jenrick – often seen as a potential replacement for Kemi Badenoch – tried to offer an optimistic vision of how the UK can be improved, insisting ‘every tide turns’.
In a wide-ranging speech, Mr Jenrick:
- Deployed a wig as a prop as he vowed to crack down on ‘pro-immigration’ judges;
- Tore into Attorney General Lord Hermer as behind many of the worst parts of the Labour government;
- Mocked David Lammy for his disastrous appearance on Celebrity Mastermind, joking that the deputy PM should have been on ‘Pointless’;
Mr Jenrick said there was ‘so much good in our country that’s worth fighting for’, including food, beer, the common law, ‘a royal family so admired they make the most powerful man in the world go weak at the knees, a military that has defeated every force on the planet’.
He insisted ‘the spirit is strong’ among ordinary people around Britain.
‘I felt it when I went to Epping and stood with mums, local mums, sick of illegal migration and determined to keep their family safe,’ he said.
‘I felt it when I went out with tradesmen, gasfitters like my Dad, sick of their livelihoods being wrecked when scumbags break into their vans and nick their tools then sell them in plain sight at the local car boot sale.
‘I felt it when I talked to folk putting up flags, sick of their identity being sneered at.
‘The collapse of the old order is in sight. A new one is coming.
‘Because the British people are fighting back.
‘And, Conference, there’s absolutely nothing Labour can do to stop them.’
Mr Jenrick warned that the ‘only choice’ for the Tories was ‘whether we have the spirit to fight with them’.
‘Are we going to quit when the going gets tough? Or are we going to dig deep and fight like never before?’ he said.
‘How long will our battle last? As long as it takes.
‘Because Britain, for all its present flaws, is too precious to lose. Let me not see our country’s honour fade.
‘Let us see our land retain her soul, her pride, her freedom.’
He added: ‘Every tide turns. And I can feel Britain’s fortunes turning.
‘So, let’s pick ourselves up and dust ourselves down. Let’s draw on Britain’s greatness. To make it greater still.
‘Let’s fight for a better future. Let’s build this new order. Let’s take our country back.’
Mr Jenrick lashed out at Lord Hermer, telling conference the appointment of the peer demonstrated that ‘Labour is just not on Britain’s side’.
He pointed to the human rights lawyer previously representing people such as Shamima Begum and those involved in the 2005 London bombings.
Mr Jenrick said: ‘His rise symbolises the central truth of Keir Starmer’s Government: Labour is just not on Britain’s side.’
He went on to criticise Lord Hermer for representing Gerry Adams, saying: ‘Not long ago, a man with his past would have had no place in mainstream politics.
‘Now he sits around the Cabinet table, and he influences the biggest decisions about our country, the same Cabinet table that the IRA tried to blow up in 1991.
‘Shame on him and shame on the man who appointed him.’
Allies of Lord Hermer have argued that barristers are obliged to take clients under the ‘cab rank’ principle.
Mr Jenrick also took aim at ‘activist’ judges, brandishing a wig as he said: ‘They dishonour generations of independent jurists who came before them, and they undermine people’s trust in the law itself. Judges who blur the line between adjudication and activism can have no place in our justice system.’
He continued: ‘We will restore the proper role of our judiciary, putting ultimate power back where it belongs, in the hands of Parliament, and ministers, accountable to you, the people of our country.
‘So I can announce today that we will restore the office of the Lord Chancellor to its former glory. We will reverse the constitutional vandalism of Tony Blair and New Labour.
‘The Lord Chancellor will once again appoint the judges. No more quangos and they will be instructed never to permit political activists of any political hue to don the wig, ever again.’
Mr Lammy hit back by accusing Mr Jenrick of attacking ‘British values’ by threatening to ‘trash the institutions and traditions that hold our country together’.
The Justice Secretary said: ‘Robert Jenrick calls himself a patriot, but he tramples on the British values he claims to defend.
‘He calls himself a Conservative, but he threatens to trash the institutions and traditions that hold our country together.
‘The independence of judges from politicians is not optional. It is the cornerstone of British democracy. When politicians start deciding which judges can stay or go, that is democratic backsliding and Robert Jenrick knows it.
‘Unlike Robert Jenrick, the public knows Britishness isn’t about retreating into suspicion or judging people by the colour of their skin. It’s about pride in what we build and contribute together.
‘While the Conservative Party feeds off division and decline, Labour is delivering the patriotic renewal our country needs.’
