A senior Conservative figure was removed from the shadow cabinet hours before defecting to Reform UK after what party sources describe as a leak from inside his own team alerted Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch to plans for the move.
Robert Jenrick, the then shadow justice secretary, joined Nigel Farage’s party on Thursday 15 January, in what Reform hailed as its most high-profile Westminster defection to date. But the Conservatives insist Jenrick was dismissed before he could control the timing or narrative of his announcement, after Badenoch was shown what she called “clear, irrefutable evidence” that he was preparing to leave.
Sky News reported that Badenoch’s team were presented with a draft defection speech and a media strategy which, it is understood, had been passed on by someone working in Jenrick’s operation. The person responsible has not been identified, and there has been no public confirmation from either Jenrick or the Conservative Party of the individual’s role. However, the allegation of an internal “mole” is expected to deepen already raw tensions among Conservative MPs, with Badenoch attempting to steady the party in the face of growing pressure from Reform on the right.
Badenoch said Jenrick was sacked at around 11am on Thursday, with the chief whip, Rebecca Harris, understood to have delivered the decision. Conservative sources said party insignia was removed from Jenrick’s Commons office shortly afterwards. Badenoch then issued a video statement confirming he had been removed from his post, saying she had acted after being shown evidence that he was plotting to defect “in a way designed to damage” the party.
Speaking later, Badenoch sought to play down the political impact of the move, dismissing Jenrick as “Farage’s problem now”, and arguing her intervention prevented further disruption. ITV News also quoted Badenoch saying she had been presented with “clear, irrefutable evidence” of Jenrick’s intentions.
Jenrick subsequently appeared alongside Farage at a Westminster press conference to confirm his move to Reform UK. He said he had already “resolved to leave” the Conservatives, but did not expect to do so on 15 January, according to ITV’s reporting of his remarks.
Jenrick has acknowledged that contact with Reform’s leadership began months earlier. Sky News reported that he reached out to Farage in September 2025, with discussions continuing privately through the autumn and winter. The Times has described a timeline of secret meetings and building suspicion inside Conservative headquarters as Badenoch’s team sought to assess the scale of the threat posed by Reform and the risk of further defections.
The decision to remove Jenrick came days after a reported clash with Badenoch in a shadow cabinet meeting on Tuesday 13 January, which centred on messaging about whether Britain is “broken”, according to Sky News. While neither side has provided a detailed readout of that exchange, it added to the sense of deteriorating relations between the Conservative leader and a senior colleague who had been runner-up in the party’s 2024 leadership contest.
Farage, for his part, suggested Badenoch had “jumped the gun”, according to ITV News, but later confirmed Jenrick’s arrival as part of Reform’s effort to attract disaffected Conservatives. Reform has signalled it wants momentum to build ahead of the May 2026 local elections, an approaching test for both parties’ grassroots organisations.
The Conservatives argue the episode demonstrates decisive leadership and an unwillingness to tolerate internal sabotage. Critics within the party, however, are likely to question how a senior frontbencher was able to develop such plans without earlier intervention, and whether the emergence of a suspected leak from within Jenrick’s own camp points to a wider collapse of trust among Conservative MPs and staff.
Sky News reported that Jenrick is the 21st former Conservative MP to defect to Reform UK, and the most senior to do so while holding a shadow cabinet role. Reform is now reported to have six sitting MPs following a string of recent defections, underlining the growing electoral and organisational threat it poses on the right of British politics.
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