Tory leader Kemi Badenoch appeared to back away from a confrontation with her front bench colleague and erstwhile leadership rival, Robert Jenrick, after he seemed to undermine her by suggesting he would work to unite the Conservatives with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Mr Jenrick’s leaked comments, first reported in a recording obtained by Sky News, were seen as incendiary because he suggested he would unite the right “one way or the other”. Many in Westminster speculated that was a veiled threat to Ms Badenoch’s leadership should she keep opposing an electoral tie-up with Reform.
Mr Jenrick, a proponent of hardline anti-immigration views, was narrowly beaten by Ms Badenoch in last year’s Tory leadership contest. He was subsequently appointed to her front bench as shadow justice secretary, giving him control over the party’s policies on immigration, a key battleground with Reform.
Last month, he addressed students at a University College London Conservative Association dinner, where he spoke about how well Reform was doing in the polls – the party is well in advance of the Tories in most surveys.
“My worry is [Reform] become a kind of permanent or semi-permanent fixture on the British political scene. If that is the case, then life becomes a lot harder for us because the right is not united,” said Mr Jenrick in the leaked comments.
“And, then, you head towards the general election where the nightmare scenario is that [Labour leader and prime minister] 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,” he said.
“I want the right to be united. 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.”
During prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Mr Starmer teased Ms Badenoch about this apparent veiled threat to her leadership from her front bench colleague. The Tory leader responded that he ought to be more worried about “his own backbenchers, not my frontbenchers” – a reference to Labour MPs fretting over government policy in trans issues in light of a recent UK supreme court ruling on the definition of a woman in equality law.
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The lively PMQs session was dominated by discussion of the prime minister’s position on the supreme court issue. Afterwards, Ms Badenoch’s spokesman was pressed by reporters on the Jenrick issue and responded by insisting the two Tories still “have a very good relationship”.
“She took his words at face value. If you read the text, he is saying that he wants to bring centre right voters together in a coalition to defeat Labour,” said Ms Badenoch’s spokesman.
Mr Starmer, however, goaded his opposite number by suggesting in parliament that she may become the latest Tory leader to fall victim to that party’s penchant for regicide.
