Britain’s former Conservative Party leadership candidate Robert Jenrick became the biggest-name defector to Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK yesterday, saying the nation was broken and its two mainstream political parties rotten.
Sacked by the Conservatives when his potential switch was leaked, Jenrick appeared alongside Farage at a Press conference, the latest of 21 current or former Conservative legislators to join Reform.
Farage’s anti-immigration party is ahead of both Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour and Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives in polls before an election due in 2029 that could end the two-party system dominating for more than a century.
“The two main parties are rotten,” Jenrick, 44, said. “They are no longer fit for purpose. They both broke Britain, and neither can fix it.”
Jenrick, who served in a number of senior government roles including immigration minister, was the second sitting Conservative legislator to switch to Reform, giving it six seats in parliament.
Badenoch had earlier announced Jenrick’s sacking from her policy team and suspension from the party after she received evidence showing he was planning to defect.
He lost to her in the 2024 contest to lead the main opposition party after their crushing national election defeat and was then, in an effort to reunite the Conservatives, given the role of justice spokesperson.
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