Standing in front of a swiftly assembled backdrop, described by one onlooker as looking like an “abandoned mattress”, the Tory leader laid into the Government’s rise in employers’ national insurance before issuing warnings of the demise of free speech in Britain.
Conservative members’ former Pied Piper, Tim Montgomerie, who has since defected to Reform, took to Twitter/X to declare that Jenrick “exhibits more political energy in a day than Kemi Badenoch has in six months”.
“I don’t think he ever really stopped campaigning,” one shadow minister told The i Paper.
“It drew a response and that’s because they all immediately understood what I was getting at. But he needs to be careful, because we only need to look at previous eras, such as Michael Heseltine, who thought they were going to be the next leader only to fail.”
But he has raised eyebrows with regular attacks against Labour on issues that are well-beyond his brief, such as his condemnation of the deal to sell the Chagos Islands and his regular dialling up of rhetoric around immigration – he has criticised “alien cultures with medieval attitudes towards women”.
A former Cabinet minister sighed: “Robert clearly still has his eyes on it [the leadership]. But what people like Robert need to realise is that quite often the people who are so overt, so obvious about their intentions – they don’t end up getting the top job.
Tories fear another leadership contest
Fears about another leadership challenge run deep throughout the Conservatives, and the decision by backbench 1922 Committee chair Bob Blackman to raise the threshold by which Badenoch can be challenged has been welcomed.
Jenrick remains the bookies’ – and backbenchers’ – favourite to mount a challenge should the opportunity arise.
“Rob is one of the few frontbenchers actually landing blows on Labour. We need the rest of the shadow Cabinet to be as active as him. What are they doing all day?” asked one Tory MP.
“The Tory party is facing an existential threat and what have they done?” one insider fumed.
‘Jenrick attack dog role can help Badenoch’
“She has her hands full trying to overhaul CCHQ so it can be a benefit that Robert is out doing what he is doing,” the source said.
“This is laughable nonsense,” the ally said. “Rob could have flounced off, but instead he chose to support Kemi in her shadow Cabinet and is working hard to hold Labour’s feet to the fire.”
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