That claim led to Jenrick being mocked
Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick has claimed that ‘pensioners are waking up with illegal migrants in their bedrooms’ as he tried to justify his plans to take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch are the final two candidates in the Tory leadership race to replace Rishi Sunak and both have been condemned in recent weeks for making ludicrous claims and for drifting further to the right.
Jenrick has made pulling Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights a major part of his campaign, a move likely to cause a split in the Tory party, while his leadership rival Kemi Badenoch has said that ‘maternity pay is excessive’ while also claiming that the minimum wage ‘burdens’ businesses.
The two are considered so right-wing that the Tory Reform Group of One Nation Conservatives has refused to endorse either Jenrick or Badenoch.
Speaking to LBC, Jenrick doubled down on his pledge to leave the ECHR in a bid to tackle illegal immigration.
He said: “The experience I had at the Home Office was a formative one. I saw the British state unable to do its most basic duties, which is to keep the public safe and secure our borders.
“If you had seen the things I have seen you would want to do this as well.”
Asked what he had seen Jenrick said: “I walked the streets of Dover for example, I met pensioners who had illegal migrants in their bedrooms when they woke up in the morning.”
That claim led to Jenrick being mocked online, with one X user posting: “Robert Jenrick “I met pensioners who had illegal migrants in their bedrooms when they woke up in the morning.”
“It’s like a less orange UK Trump lies.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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