Robert Jenrick’s week goes from bad to worse: donation scrutiny returns as Commons jibe leaves Reform MP humiliated

It’s not been the best of weeks for Reform UK MP Robert Jenrick, who was openly mocked by MPs during a speech attacking Labour over “chaos” in government.

The former shadow justice secretary, who was sacked from the Conservative frontbench by Kemi Badenoch after reports emerged that he had been plotting to defect to Reform, is also facing renewed scrutiny over donations to his 2024 Conservative leadership campaign.

Questions have resurfaced following revelations that Jenrick’s wife, lawyer Michal Berkner, worked for a British Virgin Islands-based company linked to a donor at the centre of an investigation into whether impermissible US money entered British politics.

Ahead of the Conservative leadership contest in 2024, Jenrick received £100,000 from UK businessman Phillip Ullmann through his company The Spott Fitness. Jenrick ultimately lost the race to Badenoch and defected to Reform earlier this year.

According to the Financial Times, Berkner worked as a lawyer for Centrovalli, the offshore company that controlled Spott Fitness, between September 2024 and February 2025, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Electoral Commission and the Metropolitan Police are now examining claims that £37,500 of the donation made in July 2024 may actually have originated from Innovyz USA, an American company founded by US entrepreneur Gary Klopfenstein.

Under UK electoral law, foreign individuals and companies are prohibited from donating to political parties or politicians.

Jenrick has denied any knowledge that part of the funds may have come from an impermissible US source.

But alongside the renewed questions over the donations, Jenrick also found himself on the receiving end of ridicule in the House of Commons this week during a debate on economic growth.

“Well, what a complete shambles. Less than two years ago, this government were elected with the largest majority of any government, bar one, in 100 years,” Jenrick told MPs.

“People across our country, including most in my home county of Nottinghamshire, put their trust in the Labour Party. Why? Because it promised change.

“It said it would do things differently, it would be better and it would end the chaos. It would put country before party. And where are we, less than two years later?”

At that point, Liberal Democrat MP Max Wilkinson, sitting directly in front of Jenrick, interjected: “You’re in a different party.”

The remark prompted laughter from MPs across the chamber, with Jenrick attempting to continue before Wilkinson followed up by gesturing towards the Conservative benches and saying: “You used to be over there.”

Failing to crack a smile, the MP for Newark, responded: “The honourable member asks why I changed party. I will tell him why I changed party. It is because millions of people across the country look upon the performance of the last government, and this one, and say that these are wasted years and that our country needs real change, yet we see nothing for it.”

The exchange was shared widely online, with critics mocking the awkward moment.

Campaign group Sheffield for Europe posted: “Honest Bob Jenrick builds up to deliver his rhetoric zinger in the hallowed halls of the mother of parliaments but it descends into a moment of true comedy…”

Another social media user replied: “OMG how funny. He doesn’t even have the grace to laugh at himself.”