His speech didn't go to plan
Robert Jenrick was met with heckles as he made his first speech back on his home turf in Newark as a Reform MP.
At a Reform rally in the Nottinghamshire town, a man shouted angrily at the Tory defector, saying: “Robert, Robert, why won’t you leave us?”.
The audience member also shouted: “David Davis (the Tory MP) supports Lucy Letby.” It is unclear what he meant by this remark.
Jenrick told the man “Good to see you my friend” and “Good to see you sir, thank you for coming.”
The audience member was subsequently led out of the event by security.
Despite having been repeatedly heckled, the former Tory shadow justice secretary then said: “Well thank you all very much for being here, and thank you for that very warm welcome.”
Kemi Badenoch sacked Jenrick and suspended his Conservative Party membership last Thursday, stating that she had been presented with “irrefutable evidence” that he was secretly plotting to defect to Reform UK.
The i Paper reported that Jenrick had been having discussions with Reform activist and commentator Tim Montgomerie about potentially defecting since last October.
Jenrick is now being debriefed on everything he knows about the Conservative Party.
After repeatedly denying he would defect, Jenrick is now being accused of being a “traitor”, and of switching sides for his own personal ambition.
Camilla Tominey, the Telegraph and GB News journalist, revealed that she had texted Jenrick the week before he defected to ask, “Are you defecting or not?” He said, “No.” When she followed up with “Not yet or never?” He replied, “Never”.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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