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Former senior Tory Robert Jenrick has defected to Reform UK after being sacked by Kemi Badenoch.
The ex-Conservative leadership hopeful was dramatically ousted as shadow justice secretary and suspended from the Tory party on Thursday morning.
Just moments before his defection was announced, Ms Badenoch told Sky News political editor Beth Rigby lots of Tory and Reform people had been telling her Mr Jenrick was about to defect but she “believed him when he said he wasn’t going to do that” just a few days before.
However, she was shown “very clear evidence” in the form of a defection speech he was going to give.
There was instant speculation Mr Jenrick was defecting to Reform, but he remained quiet until moments before a Thursday afternoon Nigel Farage news conference, just posting on X: “It’s time for the truth.”
Mr Farage then announced Mr Jenrick was defecting to Reform, although he said he did not know that was going to happen hours before as he thanked Ms Badenoch for speeding up Mr Jenrick’s defection.
He welcomed Mr Jenrick to the stage, however, he did not appear straight away, and there were a few awkward minutes before he did.
Read more:
All the former Conservative MPs who have defected to Reform
The newest former Tory MP member of Reform then launched a scathing attack on the Tories, saying they “don’t have the stomach for the radical change this country needs”.
“I can’t kid myself anymore,” he said.
“The party hasn’t changed and it won’t.”
He said both the Tories and Labour “broke Britain” and have no senior members with “the competence or the backbone needed to fix it”.
Mr Jenrick said he did not intend to call a by-election in his Newham constituency.
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