Robert Jenrick has told GB News he “cannot rule out any option to stop the boats” and is prepared to launch more radical alternatives, if necessary.
The former Immigration Minister, who served for just over a year in Rishi Sunak’s Government, resigned from his post in 2023 over claims the Conservatives’ Rwanda scheme did “not go far enough”.
Back as a junior minister in the Home Office, he argued in his resignation letter the legislation was the Tories’ final chance to prove the Government would do “whatever it takes” to stop the small boats reaching British shores.
But now, sitting down on GB News, Mr Jenrick told Christopher Hope he supports Reform’s policy to order the Navy to tow the boats to French shores.
He said: “You cannot rule out any option to stop the boats. And the public have got to know that Reform will do whatever it takes to end this farce once and for all.
“Leave the ECHR. Scrap the merry-go-round of human rights laws that none of those previous Governments were willing to do.
“Detain and deport everyone who comes here.”
He added he was “absolutely” prepared to take more radical action to achieve the desired means and stop the boats “once and for all”.
Reform UK’s newest MP took aim at his ex-colleagues in yet another swipe at the Conservative Party and its migration record
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GB NEWS
Both the Tories and Reform UK have supported the departure from the European Convention on Human Rights, which included provisions which are believed to have obstructed attempts to deport foreign criminals and asylum seekers.
Mr Jenrick lauded his new boss’s long-standing history campaigning against illegal crossings.
The 44-year-old told the People’s Channel: “Frankly, I was a teenager when he first started to talk about mass migration under Tony Blair.
“I was at school when he first was out there campaigning for this stuff. So he’s been consistent for a long time.
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Mr Jenrick served as Immigration Minister from 2022 to 2023
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PA
“And that means a lot because we’ve had Prime Ministers under both Labour and Conservative who’ve just let us all down. They’ve broken every promise.”
Ahead of their conference last October, Mrs Badenoch announced the Tories would leave the ECHR if they won the next election, just as Reform UK has promised.
But Mr Jenrick has cast doubt on his former peers, taking aim at the Conservative frontbench.
“The same people are still there,” he blasted.
Digging in deeper, he continued: “It’s Priti Patel as Shadow Foreign Secretary who created the points-based system to let all the migrants in.
“Mel Stride, a Shadow Chancellor who didn’t bear down on the welfare bill when he was Work and Pensions Secretary. You know, I can go on and on and on.
“I’ve tried to be honest, more honest than anyone else about the Tory party’s failures, and I’ve concluded the Tory party can’t face up to its past, let alone set out the future.
“Kemi Badenoch, she can’t handle the truth.”
Responding, a Conservative Party spokesman said: “As Nigel Farage has said, Robert Jenrick is a total fraud. He’ll stab his new colleagues in the back just like he did his former colleagues, friends and the voters of Newark.”
On the People’s Channel, the ex-Tory claimed half of Kemi Badenoch’s Shadow Cabinet did not support withdrawing from the ECHR.
He reported more than a dozen MPs shared concerns with him during the 2024 leadership race over his commitment to the move.
The sacked Shadow Justice Secretary said: “There are definitely people who who currently sit around the Shadow Cabinet table who said to me, ‘Rob, if you were fortunate enough to win, I could not serve in your shadow cabinet because you are committed now’.
“Maybe they’ve changed their mind. Let’s be generous,” he added.
Insiders said the entire team had signed up to the party’s borders “which includes leaving the ECHR”.
They said: “Robert Jenrick is lying. Additionally, Kemi has said that anyone who wants to be a Conservative candidate at the next election must sign up to her policy plan, which will include leaving the ECHR.”
They added: “Kemi has repeatedly been honest about what the previous Conservative governments got wrong, whether on Net Zero 2050 or immigration.”