Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has sacked Robert Jenrick from the Shadow Cabinet and suspended him from the Conservative Party for planning to defect to Reform UK.
Badenoch posted a statement on social media today stating that she had sacked Jenrick based on irrefutable evidence that he was planning a damaging defection.
Jenrick, who is considered by many to be Badenoch’s main opposition for the Tory leadership, was reportedly planning to defect to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party in a manner that would damage the fabric of the Conservative Party and Shadow Cabinet.
“I have sacked Robert Jenrick from the Shadow Cabinet, removed the whip and suspended his party membership with immediate effect,” Badenoch said.
“I was presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible to his Shadow Cabinet colleagues and the wider Conservative Party.”
“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,” she said, adding that she would not repeat those mistakes.
Responding to questions over the sacking of Jenrick on Thursday 15 January, Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned Jenrick’s previous comments and said Badenoch’s move was one that showed weakness.
“The question is: why did it take so long? Jenrick’s been making toxic comments to try and divide our country for months and months and months, and it’s only now, when he’s on the verge of defecting to Reform, that Badenoch gets around to sacking him,” Starmer said.
“That’s weakness on her part.”
He pointed out that many former Conservative Party politicians had now defected to Reform UK, making Farage’s party one stocked with the same figures as the party that suffered a resounding electoral defeat in 2024.
“We’re seeing a flood of Tory politicians, ex-politicians, going across to Reform because they know that the Tory party is a sinking ship.”
“Equally, from Reform’s point of view, you have Nigel Farage, who is welcoming these failed politicians into his ranks and building his party as a party of the Tory politicians who let the country down so badly.”
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