Jenrick defects to Reform
The Politics Show
The New Statesman
4.2 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Robert Jenrick has become the latest Tory to defect to Reform.
This morning he was fired by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, after she discovered his plan.
The announcement followed former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi defecting to Reform earlier this week.
Tories broke Britain, say Tories.
What does it mean? How did it happen?
Oli Dugmore is joined by Rachel Cunliffe and Ethan Croft.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The New Statesman. |
| 0:06.0 | Robert Jenrick has become the latest Tory to defect to reform. |
| 0:09.7 | This morning, he was fired by Conservative leader Kemi Badenock after she discovered his plan. |
| 0:14.8 | The announcement followed former Chancellor and deems a Harwee defecting to reform earlier this week. |
| 0:19.3 | Tories broke Britain, say Tories. What does it mean? How did it happen? I'm Olly Dugmore, and this is Daily Politics from the New Statesman. Joining me today as Associate Political Political Editor, Rachel Cunleff. Hello, Rachel. And political correspondent, Ethan, Ethan, Ethan, are you surprised by what events of today? |
| 0:55.4 | Shock, but not surprised, I would say. Go on. Well, as in the timing of it was, was, was unexpected. Yes. Um, the, but what happened is, I don't know, when I was watching that press conference with Farage and Gemmerit together, it sort of felt weird that we've never really seen them the same room before because it sort of fitted. You know, yeah. |
| 0:57.1 | Yeah, I guess the thing for me is I'm already, I already have sort of press conference |
| 1:02.0 | myopia, which is that the day starts with Bader Noctane, the quite extraordinary step |
| 1:07.8 | of sacking him in this fashion. We were, I was talking about it with Tom McTag and we were reaching for, |
| 1:12.6 | has this happened before? When is the last example of basically the leader of the party |
| 1:17.3 | coming to blows to such an extent with their main rival that they separate? |
| 1:21.8 | And Thatcher Hettlton, I think, possibly. |
| 1:24.8 | Jeremy Corbyn, Kirstama, 2020. |
| 1:26.8 | Yeah, but it's not, yeah. |
| 1:28.5 | Yeah, okay, fair point. |
| 1:30.5 | Not quite the same. |
| 1:31.9 | We did all think immediately is this AI, is it a deep fake video just because there was no |
| 1:38.3 | warning because Camie Voddnock made the video quite short notice. |
| 1:43.0 | Blurred out background. |
| 1:43.7 | Blurred background. |
| 1:45.2 | And I'm not saying she looks like an AI-generated version of herself. But there was a moment where given the AI stories that we've had earlier this week, we were all just a bit like, is this real? And it is. And it is. And she appears to have acted quite decisively. Yeah. Points to Kemi, actually. I think played a weak hand |
| 2:02.3 | well, I think. It's been an open secret that Robert Jenric wants her job. It's been an open |
... |
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