Reform’s Robert Jenrick has told ITV News Political Correspondent Harry Horton the Conservative Party is “finished” and has no future
Robert Jenrick has said the Conservative Party “is over” and has “no future” after defecting to Reform on Thursday.
The former shadow justice secretary joined Nigel Farage’s Reform UK during a chaotic press conference later that day, hours after being sacked by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who said her decision was based on “irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect.”
Speaking to ITV News on Friday, Jenrick said his former party “hasn’t learnt its lessons” and had “failed the country”.
He said he was ashamed of the last Tory government, having been an active member of parliament since June 2014.
“Yes, I’m ashamed of the actions of the last Conservative government on so many fronts,” he said.
Jenrick also said that Reform is a “fundamentally new” party, despite having disaffected former Conservatives as some of its most well-known figures.
He criticised the Conservatives during his press conference with Farage, and continued to paint a bleak future for his former party.
“They’re not going to change. I mean, believe me, I’ve been in the Conservative Party, I’ve seen it up close… Why would you trust these people, the arsonists, to be back in charge of things?
Jenrick has also said he would be open to welcoming more Tory members into Reform, but that the priority was getting a mixture of people: “If people wanna chat to me, I’d be more than happy to. But what we want to do as a party is build a big team now of people, some of whom will come from the old political parties, absolutely, but many will come from other walks of life. School teachers, doctors, nurses, business people, veterans of the armed forces.”
He added that his move was “uniting the right”. “Me joining, others joining, is uniting the right,” he said.
Jenrick had been a favourite as the possible next leader of the Conservatives, but insisted he is happy to be number two to Nigel Farage.
“No one joins Reform if they think they are going to be the leader anytime soon. It’s got a very strong leader… The next general election is going to be a choice between Keir Starmer, or whoever might replace him if the Labour Party ditch him, and Nigel Farage.”
In a tense turn of events for the Tories, Badenoch sacked Jenrick from her shadow frontbench and kicked him out of the party after finding evidence he was “plotting in secret” to join Reform.
Hours later, he did just that at Reform headquarters, which was originally intended to focus on delays to local elections.
Sitting beside Nigel Farage, the Newark MP said his former party had “failed in government” and that they are “not sorry”.
He said most of his former Tory colleagues “don’t have the stomach for the radical change this country needs”.
He added: “It does not take me one blink of an eyelid to say to you that I want Nigel to be our prime minister after the next general election.”
Tory MP Nick Timothy, a former Home Office adviser to Theresa May who was known to be close to Jenrick, is taking over as shadow justice secretary.
Timothy told Good Morning Britain he regretted Jenrick’s decision, but it highlighted that too many politicians in the UK “lack seriousness.”
He said: “One of the things about yesterday that I think was really important was the contrast between Kemi’s leadership as somebody who acted decisively and takes very seriously those challenges (which the country faces), and the sense of backbiting and backstabbing and the lack of seriousness that we see in too many politicians.”
Speaking alongside Jenrick on Thursday, Farage said that Badenoch had today gifted him “the latest Christmas present I’ve ever had” and that Jenrick’s move would help “realign the centre right of British politics”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch announced she was sacking Jenrick in a video posted on X
Expanding on his reason for leaving in an article in the Telegraph on Thursday, Jenrick said: “I see now that in this period when the two main parties were failing Britain, Nigel was all too often a lone voice of common sense.”
Badenoch announced she was sacking Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removing the whip and suspending his party membership in a post on X on Thursday.
“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,” she said.
A mole in Jenrick’s team is believed to have passed on a draft of his resignation speech and media plan for his planned defection to Reform UK, according to reports, after earlier suggestions the document had been found “lying around”.
Farage said Badenoch had “jumped the gun” and that Jenrick “might not have joined at all”.
However, Jenrick said he had “resolved to leave” the Tories before he was sacked but that “I didn’t know I was going to leave today”.
He will join Reform UK’s “frontline team” alongside five other MPs including Danny Kruger, who became the first sitting Conservative MP to defect to the party in September.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Jenrick ruled out the possibility of a pact between Reform and the Conservatives.
“There’s not going to be a pact,” he said.
Farage told ITV News’ Peter Smith in Edinburgh that no deal had been signed to secure a Jenrick move to Reform
“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.”
Jenrick insisted he had not spoken to any of his Tory colleagues about them following suit and switching to Reform.
Follow STV News on WhatsApp
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
