The MP for Newark has been booted out of the Conservative Party after representing it in Parliament for more than 10 years
15:55, 15 Jan 2026
Robert Jenrick was sacked by Kemi Badenoch after a speech announcing the Newark MP's defection to Reform UK was found on an office printer, Nottinghamshire Live has been told.
The Conservative Party confirmed on Thursday (January 15) that the party leader had sacked Mr Jenrick from his roles as shadow justice secretary and shadow lord chancellor, as well as suspending his party membership and removing the whip from him in Parliament.
It means Mr Jenrick now sits as the independent MP for Newark and he has not yet made clear what his next move will be.
Kemi Badenoch said on Thursday that she had been "presented with clear, irrefutable evidence" that Mr Jenrick was plotting a defection, following months of speculation about the MP joining Nigel Farage's Reform UK.
Nottinghamshire Live has now been told by a Conservative source that, among the "irrefutable evidence" prompting Mr Jenrick's sacking, was a speech he had written announcing his defection.
The source said: "They found a written speech on a printer. I'm trying to comfort myself in thinking that he'd written this with his mind not made up, but they've now found it and he has had the rug pulled from under his feet and quite right for Kemi to do that too."
Labour MP for Gedling, Michael Payne, said: "Yet again, we are seeing more chaos from a failed Tory Party that crashed the economy, wrecked our public services and made people poorer.
"Rather than focusing on writing defection speeches and playing political games, Robert Jenrick should have been laser focused on supporting his constituents, but instead they appear to just be an afterthought.
"The people of Newark deserve to know what their MP stands for. At the moment, it seems Robert Jenrick only stands for himself."
Mr Jenrick was contacted for further comment. Asked by Nottinghamshire Live in an interview back in November about the possibility of defecting to Reform UK, Mr Jenrick said: "I have a lot of respect for Nigel Farage.
"We know each other well and have very similar views on many issues. I think he speaks for millions of people in the country.
"I am sceptical that Reform have the answers to the challenges that the country faces right now.
"I'm also sceptical that they would be able to deliver a competent government were they to be in power in Westminster, given that they're very few in number, they have no experience of running the country and, for all those reasons, I continue to think the Conservative Party, despite its recent failings, is the best vehicle for fixing Britain right now."
Mr Jenrick first entered politics in 2014, when he first became the Conservative MP for Newark in a by-election triggered by the resignation of Conservative Patrick Mercer, who was caught on camera accepting payment for lobbying.
The MP went on to have roles in the governments of Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak - having unsuccessfully stood to take over from Sunak as party leader in a contest against Kemi Badenoch.