The Tory leader said she was “presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret”
Kemi Badenoch has sacked Robert Jenrick from his role as shadow justice secretary, removed the whip and suspended his Conservative Party membership, stating that he was secretly plotting to defect to Reform UK.
In a post on X, Badenoch wrote that she had been “presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect” to Reform.
She said that he was planning to defect “in a way designed to be as damaging as possible to his Shadow Cabinet colleagues and the wider Conservative Party”.
Badenoch added: “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.”
The Times has reported that the Tories got hold of a “near final” version of Jenrick’s resignation speech after he left it lying around.
Badenoch has previously failed to sack Jenrick despite him hinting at a Tory-Reform election pact in April, a week before the local elections.
Jenrick’s hints at a pact between the Tories and Nigel Farage’s party came despite Badenoch outright rejecting that there would be such a coalition.
In a leaked recording, Jenrick said that he wanted to unite the Tories and Reform, to prevent Labour from winning the next general election.
Jenrick said: “I want the fight to be united. And so, one way or another, I’m determined to do that and bring this coalition together and make sure we unite as a nation as well.”
Jenrick also came under fire in October over a leaked video, in which he said that on a 90-minute visit to Handsworth, Birmingham for GB News, that he “didn’t see another white face”.
Video footage from the visit showed non-white people in the background, disproving his claim.
The shadow justice secretary was also condemned for saying he “probably would ban the burqa” in a recent TalkTV interview.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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