The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, has been urged to sack Robert Jenrick for his comments appearing to endorse a “coalition” with Reform UK.
The shadow justice secretary, who finished second to Badenoch in the 2024 Conservative leadership contest, hinted at a Tory-Reform pact in a leaked recording obtained by Sky News.
Jenrick can be heard telling the students at the UCL Conservative association dinner in late March that he is still working to defeat Reform. But he said it would be a “nightmare scenario” if Keir Starmer is re-elected as a result of the two parties remaining disunited.
Jenrick added that he is “determined” to “bring this coalition together” before the next general election.
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The former cabinet minister can be heard saying: “[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.”
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Badenoch has repeatedly ruled out a deal with Reform UK, the party led by Nigel Farage.
In an interview with The Telegraph in March she mocked Reform, 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?”
The Conservative leader is now being urged to sack her shadow justice secretary for his apparent contravention of collective responsibility.
Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, said: “The cat is out of the bag, senior Conservatives are plotting a grubby election deal with Nigel Farage.
“Kemi Badenoch should sack Robert Jenrick now if she’s serious about ruling out a pact with Reform. Anything less would show she’s either too weak to sack him or that she agrees.
“It’s little wonder that former Conservative voters, appalled by the party lurching further to the right, are switching to the Liberal Democrats in their droves.”
Ellie Reeves, the chair of the Labour Party, has questioned how Badenoch’s leadership can “have any credibility” while Jenrick remains in her shadow cabinet.
She said: “Kemi Badenoch needs to urgently come clean as to whether she backs her shadow justice secretary in doing grubby deals with Reform behind the electorate’s back or if she will rule it out.
“If she disagrees with Robert Jenrick, how can her leadership have any credibility whilst he remains in her shadow cabinet?
“We know Kemi Badenoch has opened the door to deals with Reform at a local level, which Labour has categorically ruled out and now Robert Jenrick has let the cat out the bag. Between the Tories who decimated the NHS and Reform who want to make people pay for routine treatments, it’s a recipe for chaos and would be a disaster for Britain.”
A source close to Jenrick told Sky News that his comments were “about voters and not parties.”
The insider added: “He’s clear we have to put Reform out of business and make the Conservatives the natural home for all those on the right, rebuilding the coalition of voters we had in 2019 and can have again.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for all the latest news and analysis.
