Robert Jenrick has criticised the Tories after being sacked
Taite Johnson, Sophie Wingate Nina Lloyd and David Lynch and Press Association
20:40, 15 Jan 2026
Ex-shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has criticised the Tories for lacking the "stomach for the radical change this country needs" as he defected to Reform UK after being sacked from Kemi Badenoch's frontbench. In an anger-fuelled attack on the party he said had "failed so badly", Mr Jenrick said the Conservatives "are not sorry" about "mistakes" made in government.
Conservative leader Mrs Badenoch sacked him earlier on Thursday, January 15 citing "irrefutable evidence that he was plotting" to jump ship in a "damaging" way.
Appearing at a Westminster press conference alongside Reform leader Nigel Farage, Mr Jenrick said: "I can't kid myself any more. The party hasn't changed and it won't.
"The bulk of the party don't get it. Don't have the stomach for the radical change this country needs."
The Tories "are not sorry" about mistakes they made in government, Mr Jenrick claimed, pointing to rising migration, the backlog in the courts, "overflowing" prisons and the small size of the army.
"I can't in good conscience stick with a party that's failed so badly, that isn't sorry and hasn't changed, that I know in my heart won't – can't – deliver what's needed," he said.
Noting that he did not agree with everything Mr Farage had ever said, Mr Jenrick continued: "In retrospect, I see that in this period when the two main parties were failing Britain, Nigel was all too often a lone voice of common sense."
Mr Farage described the ex-senior Tory's defection as a "big day in the realignment of the genuine centre-right of this country".
He told reporters: "I think Rob coming will bring a lot more people and voters to us. I think this is actually a very big moment, and that's why we talked about it for a long time."
Mr Jenrick "will be joining our frontline team", the Reform UK leader said, while the defector noted that Reform was "building and recruiting" a team of people who "the two main parties have ignored and almost locked out politics".
Mr Farage joked he would "buy Kemi lunch next week and say thank you", adding: "You've handed me on a plate the man that is by far the most popular figure, 60% approval rating on ConHome."
There was an awkward lengthy delay between Mr Farage announcing the defection and Mr Jenrick appearing on the stage, during which the Reform leader quipped: "Kemi hasn't called him and asked him back."
In his speech, Mr Jenrick also said: "Both Labour and the Conservatives broke Britain, and both are now dominated by those without the competence or the backbone needed to fix it.
"Both parties, if judged by their own actions, are committed to a set of ideas that have failed and are failing Britain. Labour started mass migration, but the Conservatives ramped it up after 2019."
The Newark MP said he would not resign to force a by-election in his Commons seat after switching parties.
Conservative leader Mrs Badenoch earlier said she had sacked Mr Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removed the whip and suspended his party membership.
She said: "I was presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible to his shadow cabinet colleagues and the wider Conservative Party."
Moments before the start of the Reform press conference, which was originally billed by Reform as being about local elections, the Conservatives released "extracts" of a speech they said was the evidence of the ex-shadow justice secretary's planned defection.
A Tory source said Mr Jenrick was late on the platform at his defection press conference because he was rewriting his speech to take out the parts they had released to the media.
Mrs Badenoch has announced that West Sussex Tory MP Nick Timothy, a former Home Office adviser to Theresa May, is taking on the Newark MP's former shadow cabinet role.
Sir Keir Starmer earlier questioned why it took "so long" for Mrs Badenoch to sack Mr Jenrick, whom the Prime Minister accused of making "toxic comments to try and divide our country".