"There’s No Great Conspiracy": Inside Team Robert Jenrick
7 min read
Robert Jenrick lost the last leadership race but many think he’s preparing for the next one. Harriet Symonds explores the shadow justice minister’s operation
The Conservative leadership saga has featured Robert Jenrick since he and Rishi Sunak backed Boris Johnson in 2019, helping to give him unstoppable momentum. The progress of that diffident Remain-backing Jenrick into today’s tougher would-be populist is one of Westminster’s more fascinating evolutions.
It seemed as if his chance had gone last year when, having made the final two leadership candidates put to members, he was defeated by Kemi Badenoch. She gave him a job as shadow justice secretary.
If that appointment was calibrated to choke off ambition, it has failed: he has used his platform well, reminding Tories what they might have had with a generally deft use of social media.
In one video now viewed over 15m times, he confronts fare-dodgers on the London underground. Embarrassed into action, following its release, there was a 39 per cent surge in the issuing of penalty fines compared to last year.
“Rob wants to talk about issues in a way that captures people’s attention. Otherwise, you’re talking to an empty room,” says Jenrick’s spox.
In April, rumours began circulating SW1 that Jenrick could challenge Badenoch again in a future leadership election. Badenoch’s leadership has done little to inspire Conservative MPs and members, the party recently polling as low as 14 per cent. Some insiders say she still has at least six months left – but others are more doubtful.
MPs say Badenoch’s performance at party conference in Manchester will play a big part in shifting the dial on how much time she has left. “Expectations are so low,” says one.
Many think Jenrick has been on manoeuvres all year, but his operation has quietened over recent months. His camp now views Badenoch’s downfall as inevitable, so they see less of an urgency to act.
Has Jenrick turned to former prime minister Boris Johnson for advice? “They message regularly”
Those close to Jenrick say that a change of leadership before local elections would be ill-advised – not least because the expected drubbing would tarnish the new leader early on. But a poor conference performance from Badenoch could renew pressure on Jenrick to act sooner.
“The parliamentary party is in no mood for silly buggers, so Robert has thrown himself into being the best possible shadow justice secretary he can be,” says one MP close to him.
One figure who might do more than any other to precipitate a challenge isn’t even a Conservative. What a Jenrick-led Tory party might do with Nigel Farage is a question that hangs heavily.
The steady drip of Conservative politicians joining Reform was cranked up a gear after MP Danny Kruger defected last month. Kruger, who worked in both David Cameron and Boris Johnson’s governments, ran Jenrick’s last leadership campaign.
Jenrick’s allies now downplay his involvement in the campaign, but Kruger was even dubbed “chief whip” for his efforts to recruit MPs into the Jenrick camp.
Kruger’s defection indicates that the shadow justice secretary is struggling to outflank Farage’s Reform UK as the dominant force of the right.
At the time of his defection, Kruger said of Jenrick: “I don’t think he could succeed in overtaking Reform. Now, who knows what would have happened if he won last year, but I think now it is too late, and so I wish all my former colleagues well on a personal level. But as I say, I think the Conservative Party is unable to deliver for conservatives.”
Earlier this year, Jenrick said: “I want the right to be united, and one way or another I am determined to do that.” That was taken as a clear hint of the need for an electoral pact between the Conservatives and Reform UK. He has since ruled out a pact with Reform, however, insisting he is in step with Badenoch and determined to send Farage “back to retirement”.
“We need to get our people back,” one Jenrick ally says. Another adds: “We need to get into gear, otherwise more people are going to go.”
Those on the right of the Conservative Party – or “Jenrickites”, as one calls the group – are attempting to rebuild the party in a more “radical” image. The group has attracted several newbie MPs, including Katie Lam, Jack Rankin, Bradley Thomas and Nick Timothy.
“We are being constructive,” says one MP, explaining: “We might remain sceptical of aspects of the leadership because it’s not going great – that’s obvious – but there’s no great conspiracy. We’re doing the right things. We want to pull the party in our direction.”
An MP who backed James Cleverly at the last leadership election tells The House: “Jenrick has been making an effort and putting in the time with backbench MPs, including those who did not previously back him. We might not agree on everything politically, but he’s at least personable and looks like a leader – it makes Kemi’s awkwardness and lack of engagement with her own MPs somehow look even worse.”
Badenoch and Jenrick’s relationship is one of reluctant comradeship. They are bound together by necessity, both intent on keeping the Conservative Party afloat, but remain political rivals. At the last reshuffle, MPs noticed that the only parliamentary private secretary to be moved was newbie Rankin, a close ally of Jenrick who had been working alongside him on the justice brief.
One MP sums up Jenrick and Badenoch’s relationship bluntly: there is “no warmth” between them, but they share a mutual respect. But Jenrick's spox pushes back on this characterisation, insisting it is “a good working relationship”. Jenrick certainly seems to operate with a high degree of autonomy: asked who funds the shadow justice secretary’s slick videos (which are not always on his brief), an aide replies, “We do them ourselves.”
Has Jenrick turned to former prime minister Boris Johnson for advice? “They message regularly,” says Jenrick's spox.
Jenrickites say they are laser-focused on the fight against Reform emerging as the major right-wing party in the UK. “We’re in the foothills of that fight, really,” says one, insisting it is far too premature for talk of electoral deals or pacts.
He’s as close to a 24/7 politician as you can get
But if more sitting Conservative MPs decide to follow in Kruger’s footsteps, there may not be enough natural Jenrick supporters left to get behind a future leadership bid if it happens. Indeed, Conservative MPs have hinted to The House that more could jump ship in the coming months – from both Houses of Parliament.
Jenrick does not have his own Dominic Cummings or Morgan McSweeney-type figure working behind the scenes. “The operation he runs is quite modest, really, and a lot of it is actually Rob working hard, getting up early and having energy and spunk about him,” says one MP close to the operation.
“I get messages from him literally every hour of the day. The guy obviously survives on two or three hours sleep,” they add.
“He’s as close to a 24/7 politician as you can get,” says a spox for Jenrick.
The shadow justice secretary now commands a modest but resolutely “committed” team, according to those close to him. It is a tight-knit quartet. At the helm is Tom Milford, one of the few political advisers still around from the last government. Former policy wonk and strategist Sam Bidwell focuses chiefly on policy, splitting his time between the shadow justice secretary and Lam, the new MP also known for using social media effectively.
Trainee lawyer Jordan Kiss also works on policy, but on the courts side, splitting time with shadow attorney general Lord Wolfson. Rounding out the team is TikTok expert Dov Forman, who is in charge of social media strategy.
A Tory insider characterises Jenrick’s team as “young people of the right” who have been “radicalised by migration, but also by the lack of opportunities for young people in the UK today” and “believe passionately in the country and believe it needs saving”.
