Robert Jenrick will soon submit his nomination papers to the 1922 chairman for the Tory leadership contest. When he does so, this will make him the first candidate to reach the required number of nominations – ten in total, including a proposer and seconded. Speaking this morning, Jenrick’s campaign manager Danny Kruger made clear that Jenrick’s campaign will have a focus on winning back Tory voters who moved to Reform in the election:
Jenrick has been busy reinventing himself over the past year
‘To have any path back to government we must win back those voters we have lost – across the board but particularly to Reform. At the same time we have to bring our party together, united behind one set of coherent Conservative principles. The British people need to be convinced that we are the most responsible and competent party of government for us to have any chance of winning in 2029, especially when we know Labour are set to fail on so many important issues for our country. Rob Jenrick will do that. He has the energy, temperament and policy agenda to take on our rivals and lead us back to power in five years.’
Jenrick is expected to wait until next week to officially launch his campaign before embarking on a four-nation ‘Listening to Britain’ tour of the UK. But his campaign is already in full swing and one of the most far on in its planning. Once dubbed ‘Robert Generic’ by unkind colleagues, the former Home Office minister is in some ways an unlikely candidate. A few years ago, few would have suggested him as a serious contender. However, he has been busy reinventing himself over the past year. He was Sunak’s best friend in politics, until they fell out over the Rwanda Bill. Jenrick resigned saying the new plan was legally doomed. He now feels vindicated.
As I write in this week’s politics column in the magazine, Jenrick has continued to move to the right (especially on immigration) and may even trump his former Home Office boss Suella Braverman for right-wing endorsements. He has a large team working behind the scenes, complete with ‘desks, sockets, Diet Coke, snacks, even art on the walls’, according to one supporter. Donors are rolling in too. It’s a subject of debate what the spending cap for the contest will be, but Jenrick’s supporters are the ‘spend big’ camp. ‘Given the party is running out of money, it’s an important skill to show you can bring in money,’ says one backer.
Although he’s on the right of the party, Jenrick will pitch himself as a true centrist whose tendency to speak tough on immigration only matches public sentiment. If he reaches the final two, his team believe they could challenge Kemi Badenoch.
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