LONDON (AP) — Britain's Conservative Party, which governed the country from 2010 until it suffered its worst-ever electoral defeat two years ago, was plunged into fresh turmoil Thursday after its leader sacked the man widely seen as her greatest rival for apparently plotting to defect from the party. He then defected.
Robert Jenrick, the Conservative Party’s justice spokesperson, confirmed his defection at a subsequent press briefing of Reform UK,
the upstart hard-right party led by Nigel Farage.
Jenrick said the Conservative Party had “betrayed its voters and members” and was “in denial, or being dishonest” about what it had done on an array of issues, including the economy and immigration.
“After the election, I hoped the Conservative Party would change, reckon with our mistakes with humility, repent,” he said. “I said this after the election, fought for it, hoped it would be possible. But over the last year, I’ve realized this was naive. It hasn’t happened.”
Jenrick joins a string of Conservative politicians, many of whom lost their seats at the July 2024 general election, to have made the move to Reform UK, a party that has put clamping down on immigration at the heart of its agenda for government.
Critics, including Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, argue that Reform UK is becoming a lifeboat for failed Conservative politicians who have concluded they have no future in the party. Starmer refers to the Conservative Party as a “sinking ship.”
Though Reform UK only has a handful of lawmakers in the House of Commons, it is leading both the governing Labour Party and the Conservatives in opinion polls ahead of a raft of elections on May 7, including for the parliaments in Scotland and Wales.
Farage said the door to further Conservative defections was open but would close on that election day, Britain's equivalent to the U.S. midterms.
A day of high drama on the right of British politics started when Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she sacked Jenrick due to “irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect" in a way that was “designed to be as damaging as possible” to the party.
Badenoch will be hoping her abrupt and straightforward sacking of Jenrick will help bolster her position as the leader of the Conservative Party, often referred to as the Tory Party, and regain supporters lost to Reform UK. She added that Farage won't find it easy keeping Jenrick onside.
“All I would say to Nigel is, Rob’s not my problem anymore," she said. "He’s your problem.”
The Conservative Party is no stranger to turmoil, having gone through six leaders in 10 years, five of them serving as prime minister. Widespread anger at the way the Conservatives were governing Britain led to their heavy election defeat in 2024, their worst since the modern party was created nearly 200 years ago.
Badenoch, a small-state, low-tax advocate, has not made much of a mark in the country since she beat Jenrick to become leader of the Conservatives in late 2024. However, she has been making a better impression in recent weeks, particularly during her weekly questioning of Starmer.
For Starmer, Jenrick's defection provides a distraction from the grind of government. Starmer, whose favorability ratings have fallen sharply since the general election following a series of missteps, questioned why it took Badenoch “so long” to sack Jenrick given all the speculation that he was looking to either challenge her or to defect
Thursday’s tussle between the Conservatives and Reform UK appears to have put to rest to any idea that the two parties will form an alliance of the right ahead of the next general election, which has to take place by 2029. That means the vote on the right would remain split, potentially helping Labour.
