Kemi Badenoch faces calls to sack Robert Jenrick
Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick has spectacularly broken ranks with Kemi Badenoch as a leaked recording revealed he may push to join forces with Reform.
The Shadow Justice Secretary, who was runner up in the divided Conservatives’ most recent leadership contest, said he is “determined” to “bring this coalition together” before the next general election. The remarks reveal a deep split within the party leadership over how to deal with Nigel Farage, with Ms Badenoch emphatically ruling out a deal.
The Tory leader now faces pressure to sack Mr Jenrick. He told young Tories at the UCL Conservative assocation last month that he would try “one way or another” to make sure the two parties do not compete next time around. In a recording shared with Sky News, he said: “[Reform UK] continues to do well in the polls. And my worry is that they become a kind of permanent or semi-permanent fixture on the British political scene. And if that is the case, and I say, I am trying to do everything I can to stop that being the case, then life becomes a lot harder for us, because the right is not united.
“And then you head towards the general election, where the nightmare scenario is that Keir Starmer sails in through the middle as a result of the two parties being disunited. I don’t know about you, but I’m not prepared for that to happen.
“I want the fight to be united. And so, one way or another, I’m determined to do that and to bring this coalition together and make sure we unite as a nation as well.”
Ms Badenoch has repeatedly ruled out a deal with Mr Farage. In an interview with The Telegraph in March she mocked the rival party, saying: “Only five of them and they’ve already had a massive squabble and lost 20% of their MPs. If they can’t unite with five people, how are they going to unite the Right?”