Kemi Badenoch with Robert Jenrick before being announced as the new Conservative Party leader following the vote by party members at 8 Northumberland Avenue in central London, November 2, 2024
TORY hardliner Robert Jenrick has stepped up his undeclared leadership campaign by criticising the Conservatives for moving too slowly on policy development.
The shadow justice secretary was the runner-up to Kemi Badenoch in last year’s Tory leadership election and has intensified maneouvres as she is seen to be floundering.
He has positioned himself as even further to the right than Ms Badenoch and has talked up the possibility of some form of deal with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
“I do think you’ve got to get moving. We live in a highly competitive political landscape right now and you’ve got to move fast or else you’ll create vacuums others will step into,” he said this week, referring to Reform.
“In no prior instance have we, the Conservative Party, had serious competition on the right and so that does mean that there is a real sense of urgency, or should be, behind our efforts.”
This is barely coded criticism of Ms Badenoch’s reluctance to set any policies this far ahead of the next general election.
Once derided by Farage as a ‘fraud,’ Jenrick has defected to Reform, bringing experience and political ruthlessness to the populist right — and raising the unsettling prospect of a Farage-led movement with a seasoned operative pulling the strings, says ANDREW MURRAY
Badenoch under pressure to sack shadow justice secretary
