{"id":371316,"date":"2026-01-15T12:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T12:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/371316\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T12:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T12:30:10","slug":"robert-jenrick-sacked-by-tories-for-plotting-to-defect-live-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/371316\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Jenrick sacked by Tories for &#8216;plotting to defect&#8217; &#8211; live updates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\" alt=\"Analysis\" draggable=\"false\" class=\"ssrcss-to2z4d-ContributorImageComponent e2hr5uu0\"\/>From Remain voter to possible Reform defection, it has been some journey for Jenrickpublished at 12:16 GMT<\/p>\n<p>12:16 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-8kvzjk-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/34ffac2f-7f37-4fd4-a556-a1061819b8d0.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-11yxrdo-Image edrdn950\"\/>Henry Zeffman<br \/>Chief political correspondent<\/p>\n<p>      <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Jenrick, then communities secretary, in September 2019\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5c0780cf-1fad-4c59-b21e-1f3a97426af7.jpg.webp.webp\"  width=\"999\" height=\"562\" class=\"ssrcss-11yxrdo-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Jenrick, then communities secretary, in September 2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It is worth just reflecting on what a political journey Robert Jenrick has been on for his defection to Reform UK even to be plausible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He was first elected in a by-election in 2014 where his main rival was Nigel Farage\u2019s then-party, Ukip.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Once in the Commons, he was part of the Conservative mainstream, voting Remain in the EU referendum and backing first Michael Gove then Theresa May in the leadership election that followed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He became a junior Treasury minister towards the end of May\u2019s time as prime minister.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">When he joined forces with Rishi Sunak and Oliver Dowden to endorse Boris Johnson\u2019s 2019 leadership campaign it was a massive moment because it signalled that that was where the momentum of mainstream Conservative rising stars was flowing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Jenrick got by far the biggest job of the trio \u2013 housing secretary \u2013 in Johnson\u2019s first cabinet but before long was left far behind by his closest political friends.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">When Sunak became prime minister, it was striking that whereas Dowden became one of his chief lieutenants \u2013 and ultimately deputy prime minister \u2013 Jenrick was not even a full cabinet minister as immigration minister.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It was his experience in this job which, friends say, transformed him as he saw up close what he saw as a dysfunctional immigration system.His internal critics claimed that this was political opportunism from somebody anticipating a post-general election leadership contest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ultimately he quit Sunak\u2019s government because he believed his policies on illegal immigration did not go far enough. And he moved to the right on other issues too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It was Kemi Badenoch\u2019s belief that Jenrick was about to make the ultimate leap to the right which has plunged the Conservative Party into turmoil this afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Remain voter to possible Reform defection, it has been some journey for Jenrickpublished at 12:16 GMT 12:16&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-371316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}