Robert Jenrick sacked latest: Kemi Badenoch kicks out Tory rival for ‘secret plot to defect’ to Reform

Sir Keir Starmer has questioned why it took “so long” for Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch to sack Robert Jenrick, who the Prime Minister accused of making “toxic comments to try and divide our country”.

Robert Jenrick’s sacking is a sign Kemi Badenoch is “unable to stop the flood of Tory MPs deserting her sinking ship”, the prime minister’s press secretary has said.

“It shows how weak Kemi Badenoch is that she could only sack Robert Jenrick when he was on his way out,” they said.

“Robert Jenrick is just the latest in a long line of failed Tory retreads and has joined the disgraced former Tory politicians that Reform has welcomed into its party in recent weeks. Kemi Badenoch is unable to stop the flood of Tory MPs deserting her sinking ship.”

The Independent’s Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick have long been at each other’s throats.

They were rivals in the contest to lead the Conservative party only 14 months ago.

And Mr Jenrick has been a thorn in her side ever since.

But today’s announcement risks being a win not for her, but for her other opponent Nigel Farage.

The Reform UK leader appears to have succeeded in destabilising the Tory party – and may now even have time to mull over whether or not he wants Mr Jenrick, a potential leadership contender in whatever party he is a member of, to join.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has claimed senior party member Robert Jenrick was planning to defect to Reform UK.

Tory sources say evidence includes a dinner Jenrick had with Nigel Farage last month – though the Reform leader has said insisted there was no done deal.

Old social media posts from both Jenrick and Farage however show a less-than-friendly past.

In one X post in August, Farage labelled Jenrick a “fraud” on his record on migrant hotels.

When Farage backed lifting the two-child benefit cap, Jenrick wrote: “Why is Farage backing this policy?

“Has he cooked this up after one too many pints at his local? Has a joint found its way into his usual pack of Marlboro Golds?”

A Conservative Party source told the Press Association there was “totally irrefutable” evidence that Robert Jenrick was planning to defect to Reform UK.

The Tory source said: “We have had lots of reports coming in that he was meeting with Reform. He went for dinner with Nigel Farage last month, he had been speaking to people within Westminster about the possibility of a defection.

“His team has spoken to various people, including journalists, about defection.

“Kemi doesn’t take decisions lightly, she thinks about these things, she analyses things properly. But the evidence was just totally irrefutable that this was going to be done to inflict maximum pain on the party.”

The source would not say when they expected the defection would be announced, but suggested it was “going to be very soon”.

Tory chief whip Rebecca Harris informed Mr Jenrick he had been sacked and had the whip and his Conservative Party membership suspended, the source said.

Kemi Badenoch has sacked Robert Jenrick for allegedly secretly plotting to defect.

The Conservative Party came to this conclusion after compiling “irrefutable” evidence that he was planning the move.

Evidence included a dinner between Mr Jenrick and Nigel Farage in December, according to The Telegraph.

“We’d known for a while that he was starting to get closer to Reform,” a senior party source told the paper.

“He had dinner with Nigel last month, he’d discussed defecting with allies and that had got back to CCHQ”.

Nigel Farage said he will call Robert Jenrick on Thursday afternoon after Kemi Badenoch sacked him from her front bench and suspended his Tory membership.

“I’ll give him a ring this afternoon,” the Reform UK leader told reporters at a press conference in Edinburgh.

He added: “I might even buy him a pint.”

As we’ve been reporting, the news that Robert Jenrick has been sacked for plotting to defect came at the same time Nigel Farage began a press conference in Fife.

The event was supposed to focus on the party unveiling its leader for Scotland, but questions are being dominated by the breaking news.

Asked whether he had planned to announce Mr Jenrick’s defection at another planned press conference today, the Reform UK leader told reporters: “I can confirm, hand on heart, honestly, look you in the eye, I was not going to be unveiling Robert Jenrick at 4.30pm this afternoon.”

Kemi Badenoch said she was presented with “clear, irrefutable evidence” that Robert Jenrick was “plotting in secret” to defect from the Conservative Party.

In a video uploaded to X, the Tory leader said she had evidence he was seeking to defect in “a way designed to be as damaging as possible to his Shadow Cabinet colleagues and the wider Conservative Party”.