Half of Kemi Badenoch’s shadow Cabinet do not want to leave the European Convention of Human Rights, Robert Jenrick has told GB News.
The former Shadow Justice Secretary said he realised he had to quit the Conservative Party when he asked over the Christmas break how he would vote if there were a general election tomorrow, to which he replied: “Reform.”
In a damning assessment of Mrs Badenoch’s chances of winning power back from Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer, Mr Jenrick told the People’s Channel the Tory leader “cannot handle the truth” about the state of the country and that the Tories.
He added: “Kemi has as much chance of being our next Prime Minister as (Green Party leader) Zack Polanski. It’s not going to happen.”
In his first interview for Britain’s News Channel since jumping ship to Reform yesterday, Mr Jenrick cast doubt on whether the Tories would follow through on the party’s commitment to leave the ECHR.
Mrs Badenoch built her recent recovery in the polls on her party’s pledge to quit the Strasbourg court.
Asked how many of Mrs Badenoch’s frontbench do not want to leave the ECHR, Mr Jenrick claimed “half”, adding: “That would be my guess. There are definitely people 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.'”
Mr Jenrick said Mrs Badenoch could not deal with the truth about the party’s future in which it cannot win power again.
He said: “I’ve tried to be honest, more honest than anyone else about the Tory party’s failures. And I’ve concluded the Tory party it can’t face up to its past, let alone set out the future. Kemi Badenoch, she can’t handle the truth. She can’t handle the truth. I am being honest with the British public about what the Tory party did and the fact that it will never be able to change.”
Mr Jenrick added: “She’s not going to be the next Prime Minister. And I don’t mean that with any disrespect to her, but Kemi has as much chance of being our next Prime Minister as Zack Polanski. It’s not going to happen.”
The Newark MP insisted he had not been promised a spokesman role in Nigel Farage’s inner circle.
He also did not say whether other Tories might follow him to Reform UK.
He said: “What I want to do is unite the right. This is uniting the right. It’s not a pact or a deal. I know that you and I have debated that many, many times over the course of the last year, and there were times where I thought maybe that’s possible, but it isn’t realistic.
“At the end of the day, the trust with the Tory Party is gone. And so many people are so angry and frustrated and disillusioned with the Tory party, they’re never going to vote…
“And in fact, if Reform were to say, ‘we’re going to go into some kind of arrangement with the Tory party’ rightly, those people would say, ‘You’re not my party anymore’.
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“So the way to get rid of Labour and to fix the country is for the, the right to unite around Nigel and Reform.”
Mr Jenrick said he had decided to join Reform over the Christmas break when he discussed his plans with his family.
He said: “We talked about it and they all said to me, ‘Robert, if there was a general election tomorrow and you were not in politics, how would you vote?’ “‘I said ‘Reform’. They said to me: ‘Iif there was a general election tomorrow and you were asked, who do you want as Prime Minister of this country, Keir Starmer or Nigel Farage? Who would you choose?’ In the blink of an eye (I said): ‘Nigel Farage.'”
Responding, a Tory 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.”
Sources said the entire shadow cabinet 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.
“Robert Jenrick has been asked multiple times by multiple journalists, including on GB News, if he was planning to defect, and every time he said no. Yet here he admits it was something he had planned since December. Robert Jenrick has been lying to GB News and your viewers.”
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