Robert Jenrick just cannot stay out of the headlines. Today, the shadow justice secretary is under-fire for comments made to UCL students last month in which critics claim he endorsed a potential Tory-Reform ‘coalition’. In remarks first reported by Sky News, Jenrick said that:
[Reform UK] continues to do well in the polls. And my worry is that they become a kind of permanent or semi-permanent fixture on the British political scene. And if that is the case, and I say, I am trying to do everything I can to stop that being the case, then life becomes a lot harder for us, because the right is not united… I want the fight to be united. And so, one way or another, I’m determined to do that and to bring this coalition together and make sure we unite as a nation as well.
Allies of Jenrick argue that his comments were intended to be about voters, rather than parties. One told Sky that ‘he’s clear we have to put Reform out of business and make the Conservatives the natural home for all those on the right, rebuilding the coalition of voters we had in 2019 and can have again.’ The plausible deniability of Jenrick’s comments will doubtless spark much debate about his future intentions. As Metternich said after the death of Talleyrand: ‘What did he mean by that?’
The timing of the story, less than 24 hours after one of Kemi Badenoch’s best performances in the House, is clearly unhelpful for the Tory leader. The Lib Dems were first to demand Jenrick’s resignation, within minutes of the Sky story dropping. Ed Davey’s MPs hope that painting the Tories as Reform-lite will cement their status as the new party of ‘Middle England’.
Badenoch is not going to sack her most popular frontbencher over this matter. As one withering Tory aide says: ‘The Lib Dems have two default settings: call for the recall of parliament and call for Robert Jenrick to be sacked.’ It is worth noting that Greg Smith, another Conservative frontbencher, said in a Talk TV interview last month that ‘there may well be a point where the right-of-centre parties have to play nicely’. That too, prompted Lib Dem demands for an immediate dismissal by Kemi Badenoch – demands that were safely ignored.
The more interesting question is whether Jenrick – with his unerring ability to find the next great crusade of the right – has once again jumped the gun in his ceaseless campaigning efforts. His comments may have been about a coalition of voters, but there are a number of colleagues who are already considering the question of pacts.
Among a not inconsiderable number of Tory donors, members and MPs, there is a sense that the current death match on the right is not sustainable until 2029. Next week’s election results will doubtless reawaken the subject of a ‘coalition’ – whatever Robert Jenrick meant by that.
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