Jenrick Slammed By Ex-Tory Colleague For Reform Defection

Richard Holden accused ex-Conservative Robert Jenrick of “jumping into bed with the first people who would have him” in a scathing BBC Question Time takedown.

Jenrick was kicked out of the Conservative shadow cabinet in January after leader Kemi Badenoch unearthed his plans to defect.

Hours later, Reform leader Nigel Farage announced that his party had acquired yet another ex-Conservative.

Jenrick was announced as Reform’s “shadow chancellor” – or Treasury spokesperson – this week.

On BBC Question Time, the Newark MP tried to justify his decision by slating the Conservatives.

Despite serving as the cabinet-attending immigration minister under Rishi Sunak, health minister under Liz Truss and housing secretary under Boris Johnson, Jenrick said: “I want to have a good government running this country for once, which we haven’t had for along time.”

“Obviously, that is a government you were a part of,” host Fiona Bruce pointed out.

“Yeah and I resigned from that government,” he insisted. “In the last parliament, I was the only person to resign on a matter of principle.”

Jenrick resigned from Sunak’s cabinet after complaining the Rwanda deportation scheme did not go far enough.

He claimed: “It was failing on immigration. It was making promises and consistently breaking them.”

Bruce then pivoted to Holden, who currently sits as Tory shadow transport secretary – and who was supposedly “sighing” a lot while Jenrick talked.

Holden said: “Look, Robert says it was a principled decision. Robert got kicked out of the Conservative Party. That’s what actually happened.

“People remember what happened when Kemi got rid of him.”

He continued: “I supported Robert in the leadership election so to see him go was a really tough thing for me. Robert and I have known each other for a very long period of time and I’d like to think that there was a friendship there as well.

“A lot of those decisions Robert painted as about the good of the country, and things like that. I’m not convinced of that.

“I think he got kicked out and then he jumped into bed with the first people who would have him – Nigel Farage and co.”

When reminded that Jenrick was only kicked out because of his plans to join Reform, Holden said: “Well, Nigel Farage didn’t seem to think that on the day.”

Jenrick insisted: “I was obviously about to do this, I made it my decision and I was convinced it was the right one.”

He claimed Holden was “pretending everything was sweetness and light” in the Tory Party right now, but claimed his former colleague shares Jenrick’s concerns over its “massive mistakes” in the past.