Robert Jenrick sacked from Conservatives: 'Reform picking up soiled Tory goods’
Kemi Badenoch has sacked Robert Jenrick from the Tory Party before he could defect. How did he fumble his big moment so spectacularly?
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In brief…
- Kemi Badenoch has sacked shadow chancellor Robert Jenrick from the Tory front bench, and removed the party whip, after finding evidence he planned to defect to Reform UK.
- The News Agents describe the situation as “delicious”, with Badenoch denying Jenrick and Farage a spotlight in the speculated defection.
- They question whether Jenrick is as appealing to Reform without the fanfare and spectacle, and ask if this is the moment Badenoch truly secures her place as Conservative leader.
What’s the story?
Robert Jenrick has been sacked from the Tory front bench, and had the whip removed, ahead of a planned defection, and alleged revenge plot at the party.
Kemi Badenoch said she had been presented with "clear, irrefutable evidence" Jenrick was planning to defect, "in a way designed to be as damaging as possible."
Emily Maitlis describes Badenoch as "getting on the front foot" with Jenrick, adding that reports suggest it was unearthed because his resignation letter was left "lying around" inside Tory HQ.
"It somehow seems so 1990s," adds Jon Sopel.
Jenrick's direction of travel is believed to be Reform UK – following a defection earlier this week from Nadhim Zahawi – but Nigel Farage has denied having "signed a deal" with Jenrick to join Reform.
Farage and Jenrick were trading insults on social media and in the press as recently as September 2025.
"As long as Kemi Badenoch has been leader, Jenrick has been trying to chart a distinct path ever closer to Reform, putting out social media videos – well produced, but which are on the edge of what is acceptable and what would be considered mainstream conservative thinking – getting a lot of likes and a lot of attention, exactly what he wanted," Jon adds.
"But what he's done now is to fumble the big moment.
"Badenoch has stolen his thunder by saying: 'No, Robert, you're not quitting. You're fired.'"
The situation is without doubt, Emily adds, "the most delicious of the week".
Is Jenrick as attractive to Reform without the fanfare?
There is only one thing Nigel Farage loves more than Tories defecting to Reform UK, Emily Maitlis says, and this is announcing Tories defecting to Reform UK.
"He loves that moment of watching the collective Tory face fall as he imagines taking someone away," she says.
The question now, Emily adds, is whether Jenrick's defection is as attractive to Farage now that Badenoch has played her hand.
"When Farage says he's very surprised that this news is broken, I think he's actually telling it straight," she says.
"Kemi Badenoch has literally stolen the thunder from both of them, because what Nigel Farage likes more than getting people over from the Tories is the announcement of getting people over from the Tories.
"Jenrick doesn't get to defect with fanfare and trumpets.
"So at the moment, it looks more like the Reform Party is picking up soiled Tory goods rather than scalps."
Jenrick's defection flop follows Nadhim Zahawi's move earlier this week, which seemed like a triumph for Reform at first, but the shine dulled when Tories peers claimed the former chairman "begged for peerage" before his departure.
Is this the moment Kemi Badenoch 'shores up' her Tory leadership?
Since becoming leader of the party in November 2024, Badenoch has had a bumpy ride following its decimation at the year's General Election.
While some have praised her improved performance at Prime Minister's Questions, defections have delivered successive knocks to her position.
Until now, of course. Not only does Kemi's swift action show her leadership skills, but losing Jenrick – who made his name after switching from left wing to hard-right - could provide the opportunity she's been waiting for.
Emily says the removal of Jenrick may present an opportunity to escape the culture war trenches Jenrick, and his hugely popular social media content, had dragged the party into.
"Badenoch can position herself and the Tories now as being the party of economics, rather than culture wars – although the question now is whether he was a useful foil within it," she says.
"When he was on the front bench, she could show she was taking the party in a different direction to him.
"Now, she may have a clear slate to tell him to go and do his 'garbage, racist social media stuff', and say the Tories are going to be a party of government."
Jenrick, she adds, has not found his "political home" yet.
"Jenrick had become a distraction, and every time he spoke, you felt she had to defend him," says Jon.
"She had to defend him, but he looked like he was the leader-apparent, who was just waiting for her to fall.
"So, having him out of the way is probably helpful, because it's hard to see who else in the Conservative Party presents a real challenge to her leadership."