Robert Jenrick sacked by Kemi Badenoch after ‘plotting to defect’

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said she has sacked Robert Jenrick as shadow justice secretary and kicked him out of the party due to “irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible” to his Conservative colleagues.

Badenoch said on X: “I have sacked Robert Jenrick from the Shadow Cabinet, removed the whip and suspended his party membership with immediate effect.

“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.

“I will not repeat those mistakes.”

At a press conference in Scotland, Nigel Farage has said that “of course” he has had conversations with senior Jenrick.