THE TORIES have become the “party of posh people” and given up on Red Wall voters, Robert Jenrick today blasts.
The political big beast rocked Westminster this week with his bombshell defection to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party.
And today he launches his most blistering attack yet on Kemi Badenoch and the Conservative Party he once hoped to lead.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun on Sunday, he said the Tories are “arsonists” who broke Britain and are completely “out of touch” with most of the country.
Mr Jenrick fumed: “The problem for the Tory Party right now is that it won’t accept that it made mistakes when it was in office. It’s in denial at the moment.
“And the same people who broke the country are at the helm – whether that’s Priti Patel or Mel Stride – they are the most prominent people in the Conservative Party at the minute.
“It’s almost become the party of posh people.
“They are so out of touch with the people I grew up around in Wolverhampton and represent in North Nottinghamshire.
“It’s just not a party now of working people. of provincial Britain, of the towns and cities, of the people who read The Sun.
“The divide in British politics has become Reform’s Workers Party versus the Tory posh party.”
Mr Jenrick blames ex Home Secretary Priti Patel overseeing the explosion in immigration numbers, and former Work and pensions Secretary Mel Stride for letting benefits balloon.
The father-of-three said it was a recent shadow cabinet away-day that left him in no doubt the Tories had abandoned the working class voters who swept them to victory back in 2019.
Kemi’s top team debated the question – is Britain broken?
Then a slide came up declaring that the Tory party’s message is that “Britain is not broken”.
Robert protested. Some of his colleagues even agreed with him – but said they could not admit it publicly because it was the Tories who broke Britain.
In that moment his simmering doubts about his party boiled over into anger – and a decision that could change British politics forever.
Mr Jenrick said: “The Conservative Party isn’t sorry. It won’t change, it can’t change.
“And the British people are not going to give it back the keys when the arsonists are still in control.”
Mr Jenrick’s blistering attack comes after an astonishing week in British politics which saw the Right explode into civil war.
Just after 11am on Thursday morning, Kemi dropped a video clip online revealing she had sacked Robert after discovering that he was plotting to defect to Reform.
Her Traitors-style unmasking plunged Westminster into a frenzy.
Rumours she had a secret mole in his office who leaked her Robert’s resignation speech began ripping through Fleet Street.
At a press conference at Reform Party HQ at 4.30pm that afternoon, Nigel Farage announced what by then had become the worst kept secret in Westminster – Robert Jenrick was crossing the floor to join his new party.
Tory grandees dashed to the airwaves to denounce Robert as a turncoat and a traitor.
Michael Gove said he was a Slytherin – one of the Hogwarts Houses in the Harry Potter books whose members are known for their bloodthirsty treachery and ambition.
Asked if he felt wounded by these attacks, Robert laughs.
“It’s water off a duck’s back. I have to be faithful to my constituents and to the country.”
Mr Jenrick says he has spent many months – indeed years – deeply worried about the direction the Tory Party was going in.
He quit Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet in despair at its failure to tackle the border crisis.
And he has torn into Boris Johnson and Priti Patel for letting immigration rocket to record breaking numbers – known as the ‘Boriswave’.
But critics scoff at his conversion to Team Nigel – saying it was motivated by naked political ambition not principle.
Tory broadcaster Ian Dale even accused Mr Jenrick of “bursting into tears” when first saw the Rwanda deportation plan because he thought it was so cruel.
This is a claim dismissed as “total b**llocks” by Robert.
But some of Mr Jenrick’s past comments about his new party boss Mr Farage make for very uncomfortable reading.
In an interview with the Sun on Sunday’s Political Editor Kate Ferguson last September, he said: “My view is this. Nigel is a good bloke to go to the pub with, and he speaks to loads of people in the country.
“But I don’t think Nigel is the bloke you want running your kids’ schools. Or running your local hospital.”
The clip, from The Sun’s Kate’s Political dates show, has gone viral in the past few days.
So was Robert lying back in September? Or has he changed his mind?
“Look in politics, you sometimes have to go with the rough and tumble. And he said some things about me. I’ve said some things about him”, he said.
Mr Jenrick said he was “wrestling” with a big decision that was many months in the making.
His defection has left many on the Right of British politics in despair.
Many – including Tory grandee Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg who writes in today’s Sun on Sunday – want to “unite the right”.
They say the Conservative party should team up with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and merge or do a deal to defeat Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour.
But the bitter in-fighting and bloodletting of the past few days appears to have left any hopes of an alliance in tatters.
Mr Jenrick said: “I think you’ve got to unite the right and unite the right by rallying behind Nigel and Reform.
“There’s not going to be a pact or a deal. Why? Because millions of people in the country think the Conservative Party failed. They don’t want the Conservative Party to come back.
“The trust is gone, and it’s not coming back anytime soon.”
The question on everyone’s lips now is, will more Tories follow Robert Jenrick out the door and defect?
And – after 200 years as Europe’s most formidable election winning machine – is the Conservative Party on its earth bed?
Mr Jenrick is tight-lipped about who else might defect.
But he thinks the Tories are over as a political force and any vote for them “is a wasted vote now”.
With local and devolved elections just a few months away on May 7, we might not have to wait long to find out if he is right.
