Robert Jenrick, a senior British opposition politician and former cabinet minister, has defected to Reform UK, escalating turmoil on the Right of UK politics and deepening the crisis facing the Conservative Party.
Jenrick, who served as a government minister under former prime minister Boris Johnson and later became the Conservatives’ shadow justice secretary, appeared on stage with Reform leader Nigel Farage on Thursday evening. Farage hailed the switch as “the latest Christmas present I’ve ever had,” describing Jenrick as one of the most recognisable figures to cross from the Conservative mainstream to his insurgent party.
Earlier in the day, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch had sacked Jenrick from the party’s frontbench and suspended his membership, saying she had been presented with “clear, irrefutable evidence” that he was secretly planning to defect in a way intended to cause maximum political damage.
Speaking after joining Reform, Jenrick said Britain was “in decline,” pointing to falling real wages, high taxes, rising energy costs and worsening access to healthcare. He argued that neither the governing Labour Party nor the Conservatives were capable of reversing the country’s economic and social trajectory.
The move is the latest in a series of defections from the Conservatives to Reform UK, a populist party campaigning on immigration controls, leaving European human rights law and a radical shake-up of Britain’s political system. It highlights growing fragmentation on the British Right following the Conservatives’ heavy election defeat in 2024.
