Days after defecting to Reform UK, Robert Jenrick claimed he had told the Tory chief Kemi Badenoch on ‘multiple’ occasions to get rid of the ex-PM Liz Truss.
Tory turncoat Robert Jenrick has launched a savage attack on failed ex-PM Liz Truss – saying she should be booted out of the Conservative Party.
Days after defecting to Reform UK, Mr Jenrick claimed he had told the Tory chief Kemi Badenoch on “multiple” occasions to get rid of the ex-PM. The former Tory MP said the failure to kick out Ms Truss showed the party has not changed.
In an article today, Mr Jenrick hit out at the 49-day PM’s “unrepentant, vainglorious global media tour” since she was turfed out of office in 2022. He said: “Why hasn’t she been removed? Well, because removing her would be difficult. She has friends in the party. It isn’t the done thing.
“It’s easier to let her just remain. Nobody has the gumption to face the issue, no matter how offensive it is to the victims of her ineptitude. And if the party doesn’t have the balls to kick out Truss, will it really have the gumption to take on the vested interests that stand in the way of all the change our country needs?”
Speaking to Sky News today, Mr Jenrick went on: “If I’d been leader of the Conservative Party – that’s obviously ancient history now – I would have chucked Liz Truss out of the party. The mini-Budget was careless. It was cack-handed. It did cause in the moment real harm to people – people’s house sales fell through, their mortgages, their investments, their pensions. That is not somebody who should be a member of your political party.”
Ms Truss, who left No10 after just 49 days, hit back on X, saying: “Robert Jenrick may have joined Reform but who is he getting his orders from? Trojan horse.”
Mr Jenrick also said a “well-known” former Labour MP is set to join Reform UK after Nigel Farage teased of a defection last week. Ex-Tory frontbencher Mr Jenrick told Times Radio: “There are some people in the party who have come from the Conservative Party. There are many people who have come from other political parties as well. There may be a former Labour MP joining the party in the days ahead.”
On Sunday evening Andrew Rosindell became the second Tory MP to jump ship and join Reform UK. Labour party chair Anna Turley responded, saying: “The stench of a failed and dying Tory Party now engulfs Reform. The Conservatives left public services on their knees, and Nigel Farage is now unconditionally trying to rehabilitate their disastrous record. The public won’t be fooled: the Tories failed Britain and Reform want to do it all over again.”
