Kemi Badenoch has insisted that Britain is “not broken” and remains “one of the most successful countries on earth” in a rebuke to Robert Jenrick after he defected to Reform UK.
The Tory leader hit back at the former shadow justice secretary after he described Britain as “broken” during a press conference alongside Nigel Farage last Thursday.
Speaking to reporters after his defection was announced, Mr Jenrick blamed both the Conservatives and the Labour Party for Britain’s economic decline – and insisted only Reform could fix it.
But in an article for the Daily Telegraph, Mrs Badenoch attempted to offer a more positive message about the UK’s future to voters.
She wrote: “Ours is still one of the most successful, resilient and influential countries on Earth. A country that has reinvented itself repeatedly. A country whose people quietly get on with things while politicians argue.
“Telling them their country is finished does not empower the British people – it drags them down.”
She later added: “Yes, Britain’s problems are real, and in some cases getting worse. But Britain is not broken. We are a great country with deep reserves of strength, talent, and resilience.
“What has failed is a system that too often rewards process over outcomes and intervention over results. Labour’s answer to every problem is another consultation, another review, another layer of state control. That does not make people richer. It makes them poorer.”
Earlier this week Mr Jenrick had claimed in an interview with the BBC that his defection was “uniting the right” and insisted he had put the country before his allegiance to the Conservative Party. He also denied that personal ambition had played a role in his defection to Reform.
Mr Jenrick’s sudden defection came hours after Mrs Badenoch dismissed him as shadow justice secretary and suspended him from the Conservative Party, saying she had evidence that he was plotting to jump ship to Reform.
Although both he and Mr Farage have said his defection had not been planned for Thursday, Mr Jenrick told the BBC he had “resolved” to go during the Christmas break.
But the “final straw” had come during a shadow cabinet away day last week, in which said he had argued with fellow frontbenchers about whether Britain was “broken”.
Mr Jenrick said some colleagues had agreed with him that Britain was broken, but argued they could not say so publicly because the Conservatives were responsible having spent 14 years in government.
On a visit to Aberdeen on Friday, Mrs Badenoch ruled out any pact with Reform ahead of the next election.
“How do you do a deal with liars? How do you do a deal with people who have been saying things that were clearly not true, not just for months, but clearly for years?”
Labour chairwoman Anna Turley also hit out at Mr Jenrick’s comments, claiming he was “one of the arsonists who inflicted chaos and decline” on Britain while serving as a Tory minister under the previous government.