Robert Jenrick said that the Tories and Labour had both ‘forfeited the right to govern the United Kingdom’ in a speech he planned to give announcing his defection to Reform.
As the former immigration minister was unveiled by Nigel Farage in a haphazard press conference, the Conservative Party released what they said were extracts of the notes Kemi Badenoch was passed, leading her to kick him out.
In them Mr Jenrick praised Reform leader Nigel Farage and said he was ‘proud to become Reform’s 281,000th member.
The Newark MP, who was continually linked with a putsch against Ms Badenoch after she pipped him to the leadership, said that ‘putting party allegiance – personal ambition – to one side’, Farage was ‘obviously the right person’ to lead the ‘change’ the UK needs.
And he urged other Conservatives to follow him out of the door, saying: ‘If like me, you’ve backed another party but know it’s lost its way, don’t stay.
‘Don’t stay in a party that hasn’t been loyal to you. When your country needs you.’
In a slap down to the former justice secretary the Tories also highlighted the grammatical errors in the document, which is understood to have been passed to Ms Badenoch yesterday.
Parts of the leak were very similar to the speech Mr Jenrick gave this afternoon.
A Tory source suggested he was late to the stage at his defection press conference because he was rewriting the script to take out the parts that had been released.
As the former immigration minister was unveiled by Nigel Farage in a haphazard press conference, the Conservative Party released extracts of the notes Kemi Badenoch was passed, leading her to kick him out.
In them Mr Jenrick praised Reform leader Nigel Farage and said he was ‘proud to become Reform’s 281,000th member.
Mr Farage said he would ‘buy Kemi lunch next week and say thank you’, as he confirmed Mr Jenrick was joining his party.
‘I’ve had to think very quickly as to how I should respond to this, and I just want to say thank you to Kemi Badenoch, this is the latest Christmas present I’ve ever had,’ the Reform UK leader told a Thursday afternoon Westminster press conference.
‘The negotiations with Jenrick are over. There’s nothing more to be said or to be done.
‘You’ve handed me on a plate the man that is by far the most popular figure, 60% approval rating on ConHome…
‘You’ve perhaps today, really done anything more than anybody in history to help realign the centre-right of British politics, which is much needed against a dreadful Labour Government and increasingly worrying extreme left-wing voice in this country.
‘So I can’t offer you drinks all round, but I’ll buy Kemi lunch next week and say thank you.
‘And on that note, I will welcome Robert Jenrick into this room and into Reform UK.’
After an awkward delay, Newark MP Mr Jenrick appeared at the press conference and said: ‘It’s time for the truth. Britain has been in decline. Britain is in decline.’
Conservative leader Mrs Badenoch earlier said she had sacked Mr Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removed the whip and suspended his party membership.
She said: ‘I was presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible to his shadow cabinet colleagues and the wider Conservative Party.’
