Nabiha Ahmed
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

Robert Jenrick's choice to join Reform UK yesterday - hours after being sacked from the Conservative Party - was a seismic defection for British politics. A day on, the reaction continues, and we also heard from Jenrick himself.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Jenrick said he agonised over the decision, insisted it was not motivated by "personal ambition", and expressed hopes that his move will "unite the right". He revealed that he decided to leave the Conservatives over Christmas, after realising his former party was - in his words - "completely out of touch". In case you missed it, here's the key things he said.

A day after sacking him, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described Jenrick as "simply not a team player," adding that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is doing her "spring cleaning" for her by welcoming the former-Tory to his party.

Meanwhile, newly-appointed shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy - who says he is friends with Jenrick and now takes on his role - describes the defection as "obviously disappointing", but his party will "move on".

Despite criticism from former colleagues, Jenrick has been warmly welcomed by his new party. Danny Kruger, who also defected to Reform, has sympathised with him, noting that defection is "not an enjoyable experience".

Other Reform members, including former Tories Sarah Pochin and Sir Jake Berry, have warmly welcomed the "wonderful" news of Jenrick joining their party.

The defections may not end here - Farage's local election deadline is looming over Tories who may want to join.Senior Conservatives are now on defection watch,writes our political correspondent Harry Farley.

We're closing our live coverage now, but you can read all about this story here.

Image source, PA Media

One man who knows more than most on how Robert Jenrick might feel today is Danny Kruger. He defected from the Tories to Reform UK himself last year.

He tells BBC Radio 5 Live’s Matt Chorley that defecting was "no fun" because it is difficult to do "on a personal level", due to the fact you are leaving behind your colleagues and the local party activists who helped get you elected.

"It’s not an enjoyable experience to defect," he says. "You do it because you think it’s right."

He adds that leaving your old party feels like "jumping into cold water" because you do not know exactly how it will go, but in his case "it’s worked out pretty well I’m very pleased I did it".

Kruger was campaign manager for Jenrick’s failed Tory leadership bid in 2024, and he says he is still close with him.

Asked if he played a role in bringing Jenrick over to Reform, Kruger says he spoke to him in the lead up to his decision and "certainly encouraged him to do this".

"But it was a decision for him and a conversation with Nigel [Farage] that made him decide," Kruger says.

Responding to the argument that Reform is becoming full of former Conservatives, Kruger says the party needs a "breadth of talent" including people with government experience.

"We can’t all be insurgents and outsiders," he says.

Laura Kuenssberg
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

A Conservative party member, who was on the phone call between the chief whip and Robert Jenrick yesterday when he was confronted about defecting and was ultimately sacked, has told the BBC he lied during the call.

Jenrick's allies have said he was in his office in Westminster when he received a call from chief whip, Rebecca Harris.

The Conservative says that when Harris challenged Jenrick about his plan to defect, the now-Reform MP said: “It’s not true. You haven’t got evidence. I’m not doing this. This is complete nonsense. You’ve gobsmacked me. I don’t know what I’m supposed to say to this other than it’s compete nonsense. I was in shadow cabinet yesterday.”

He then ended the call abruptly. Within minutes, Badenoch's team had posted her video announcing he had been sacked. A few hours later, it was confirmed that Jenrick had joined Reform.

Asked about this characterisation, Jenrick's team directed me towards what he had said in our interview earlier today. He described agonising over the decision to leave the Conservative Party for many years, but the final straw came over the Christmas period.

Image source, Leon Neal/Getty Images

Members of Reform UK have continued to welcome Robert Jenrick to the party.

"It is wonderful to have you on board," former Conservative Sarah Pochin - now Reform's first female MP - writes in a post on X, adding that "the Tory party is dying".

Sir Jake Berry, ex-Tory chairman and now Reform member, says the Conservative Party "left me, it left Rob, and it's left the voters of Britain behind".

Alex Wilson, who leads Reform in the London Assembly, says it's "a pleasure to welcome" Jenrick to the party, who he says "wasn't getting support from his cabinet colleagues to deliver what he really wanted to do".

Earlier today, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said her party is "stronger since [Jenrick] left", adding that it is a "strong, united team".

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

Senior Conservatives admit they are watching some MPs for signs they might follow Robert Jenrick and join Reform UK.

Some of the names mentioned to me include Andrew Rosindell, the MP for Romford - a seat many polls predict could vote Reform at the next election.

Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, is also often considered a possible defector. She backed Jenrick in the 2024 leadership race but has been criticised by figures in Reform recently.

Sir John Hayes, another name frequently cited, is a close ally of Braverman who also backed Jenrick to be Tory leader.

Esther McVey is a name one senior Conservative mentioned as a possibility. She criticised Kemi Badenoch's sacking of Jenrick yesterday.

Lewis Cocking is a less well-known figure on the Conservative backbenchers - he's the MP for Broxbourne and another defection suspect for those close to Badenoch.

We've approached all of these MPs for a comment, and to ask if they wanted to deny rumours they might defect, but so far none have replied.

One final name often mentioned is the shadow defence minister Mark Francois. But he's made a point of going on Talk TV this morning to deny the allegations. "The Conservative party is my tribe," he said. "I'm not leaving it."

Some of Jenrick's closest Conservative allies have described their hurt following his defection to Reform UK.

“I’m gutted,” says Councillor Sam Smith, who leads Nottinghamshire County Council’s Conservative opposition group and represents Newark East.

“I’ve lost my role model and someone I’ve invested so much work and time into supporting," he tells the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Smith describes himself as Jenrick's "closest person in Newark" and says Jenrick "didn’t have the courtesy" of warning him ahead of his switch to Reform.

Fellow county councillor Mike Adams, also a Conservative, says: “I really like Rob, I’m sad to see this happen... We are such a close team over here, and it’s hard to take when one of your own signs for Derby.”

Jenrick's claim this isn't about personal ambition could raise eyebrowspublished at 14:22 GMT 16 January

14:22 GMT 16 January

Jack Fenwick
Political correspondent

Robert Jenrick's claim that his defection is not about personal ambition is likely to raise some eyebrows among his now-former Conservative colleagues.

Jenrick ran Kemi Badenoch pretty close for the Tory leadership - and his ambitions for the top job weren't exactly a secret in Westminster.

A few months ago, there'd been talk that he could challenge her if May's elections go badly for the Conservatives.

But that talk had started to ease.

A feeling that Badenoch's performances at PMQs - Prime Minister's Questions - had improved, and a slight uptick for the party in the polls meant the prospect of a Jenrick leadership bid felt further off than had previously been the case.

The Conservatives say that's why he defected.

But Jenrick says that's not so - and claims he's acted in the national interest.

Whatever the case, it's likely that his aspirations for a senior government role will not have gone away.

Nigel Farage hasn't yet announced what jobs his MPs would get in a potential Reform government.

But it's likely that Jenrick will be competing with the likes of Richard Tice and Zia Yusuf for the plum positions.

Image source, PA Media

A former senior MP says Robert Jenrick comes out of this as a “diminished figure”, who is “unserious” and just after “personal ambition”.

Robert Buckland KC, who was Justice Secretary under Boris Johnson and the former Conservative MP for Swindon South, tells the World at One that Kemi Badenoch acted in a “strong” and “decisive” way by sacking him.

He argues the Conservative party is “rebuilding”, while claiming Reform UK is “not a party of the right”, but a “hotchpotch of all sorts of ideas”.

He adds: “Reform prides itself from taking votes from Labour voters and people who haven’t voted at all.

“So the idea that the survival of the Tory party is entirely contingent on this nonsense and Mr Farage is rubbish.”

As we've been reporting, in his interview with the BBC today, Jenrick said he agonised over the decision to leave the Conservative Party, and denied that personal ambition is behind the switch.

Image source, Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images

Following Robert Jenrick's interview with the BBC, the Labour Party chair has described him as "a fraud".

"He himself is one of the arsonists who inflicted chaos and decline on Britain while the Tories were in government," Anna Turley says.

She's referring to Jenrick's earlier comment that "arsonists" who left the country "in a mess" are still in control of the Conservative party.

Turley also calls this "a recipe for more of the same chaos that held our country back for far too long".

Robert Jenrick, now a Reform UK MP, has spoken exclusively to the BBC a day after he was sacked from the Conservative Party.

Here are the key takeaways from his interview with Laura Kuenssberg:

• Jenrick insists his move to Reform was not about personal ambition, and hopes his defection will "unite the right"
• He "agonised" over the decision to leave the Tories, he says, reaching his "final straw" over Christmas and after a shadow cabinet meeting

• Jenrick says he doesn't know if any of his former Tory colleagues will choose to join Reform
• He denies betraying the trust of voters, and dismisses calls for a by-election in his constituency, Newark
• He justifies his previous jabs at Nigel Farage as the "rough and tumble of politics", now describing the Reform leader as a consistent voice on Britain's most pressing issues
• That said, he confirms Farage has not offered him a job
• The former Tory says he hasn't been "perfect", but "worked like crazy" to create change in his previous party - which he now describes as "completely out of touch"

Image source, Ben Whitley/PA Wire

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has responded to Jenrick's BBC interview, saying "people are fed up of hearing that Britain is broken from the very people like Robert Jenrick and Nigel Farage who broke it in the first place".

"Robert Jenrick was a Conservative health minister who helped wreck the NHS, while Nigel Farage championed Boris Johnson's Brexit deal which damaged the economy and increased the cost of living," Davey adds.

He says the Liberal Democrats "will be the home" for former Conservative voters who "feel appalled" by Farage and "let down" by Kemi Badenoch.

Jenrick claims his move will 'unite the right'published at 13:21 GMT 16 January

13:21 GMT 16 January

Jack Fenwick
Political correspondent

This is a bold claim from Robert Jenrick.

For months, some senior Conservatives have called for the party to strike some sort of deal with Reform.

They fear that a split on the right would make it more likely that Labour wins the next election - and accuse those who leave the Tories of playing into Keir Starmer's hands.

After Jenrick's surprise switch yesterday, any sort of pact now looks increasingly unlikely.

But he appears to have suggested that his move will "unite the right" anyway - by all but killing off the Conservative Party.

He hopes his decision will flip the argument - that people may now argue that the right will be split if people choose to stay in the Conservative Party.

We'll wait to see if his defection - the most high-profile yet - will lead to others changing their allegiance.

Jenrick says his former party hasn't changed since its historic defeat - and says "arsonists" who oversaw policies when the Conservatives were in government, are still in charge.

The former cabinet minister says that the nation will "slip away" if his new party doesn't fix the country.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Reform UK defector Robert Jenrick says his move to Nigel Farage's party "is uniting the right".

He says he has not spoken to any of his former Conservative colleagues about whether they will also defect, stating that any who are considering it will find it to be a "deeply personal" decision which will then need to be agreed with the Reform UK party leadership to make it happen.

For his own part, Jenrick says he finally decided to leave the Conservatives "over the Christmas period", with the final straw coming during a shadow cabinet away day when he found many unwilling to agree with his view that "Britain is broken".

Asked about policy differences he might have with his new party, Jenrick says that leader Nigel Farage's position on the two-child benefit cap being lifted for British families was "reasonable", as a pro-family policy - but when asked if it is one he agrees with, he says it's "a question the party's got to think through". He adds that Reform UK stands for "alarm-clock Britain" and people who are in work.

Jenrick also reflects on the current make-up of the shadow cabinet, claiming that the "arsonists" who had overseen policies while in government are "still in control of the party." On his time in the Home Office as immigration minister, he says the department was a "bin fire".

Robert Jenrick also claims that a government under Reform UK is "essentially our country's last shot" and that if they don't "fix" Britain, he feels the nation will "slip away".

Kuenssberg asks: Has Farage offered you a job?

"No," Jenrick says.

Kuenssberg then asks "what job would you like?" to which Jenrick says: "I'm just here to help [Farage] to succeed."

Jenrick says if he can play a "small part" in ensuring a Reform government, that will outweigh the "personal pain and difficulties of the last few days".

But you used to say voting for Reform would split the vote on the right and guarantee a Labour victory, Kuenssberg says. "This is uniting the right," Jenrick responds.

Challenged over whether it was opportunistic to join a party that is ahead in the polls, Jenrick says that is not why he did it.

He says he was the "bookies' favourite" to be the next Tory leader before he defected. He "said no to all of that" to join Reform. "You don't do that if you're motivated by personal ambition."

For her final question, Kuenssberg asks if Jenrick has been watching The Traitors.

He smiles: "I've been a bit busy recently, but I did watch the celebrity edition."

People might think you were a traitor, not a faithful, Kuenssberg says.

Jenrick says in the future, people will look back on this moment as a time "when the right united", and when "people put aside party loyalties and came together to fix our country".

• And with that, the interview is over. Stay with us as we bring you the latest reaction, as well as analysis from our team of correspondents

Kuenssberg asks how many of Jenrick's former Tory colleagues might also defect and join him at Reform UK.

"I don't know. We'll have to see," he answers.

It is ultimately up to Nigel Farage, Jenrick says, adding that the majority of MPs in Westminster "don't believe in the things I believe in".

Jenrick is then asked about a potential mole who leaked his plans to leave the Tories, to which he says he was told it was a junior member of his office, describing it as "a minor footnote".

Kuenssberg challenges Jenrick's claim that former Tory colleagues don't understand the public won't forgive them because "they broke Britain".

"You were absolutely at the heart of that. If you can't forgive them, how can people forgive you?" she asks.

"I always tried to challenge the system," he says. Running through his track record as a minister, he says he "worked like crazy" on immigration.

"When I couldn't persuade the government to do more, I resigned, I went onto the backbenches, and I started to campaign there," he says.

"I haven't been perfect," Jenrick accepts, but says he has "always tried to be honest with the British public about the challenges and to rise to them".

Kuenssberg says people will wonder what Jenrick stands for, and asks how he can work with Farage when Jenrick recently said Farage was not a serious politician.

"I've said stuff in politics, Nigel has said things about me," Jenrick says. Kuenssberg interjects to say Farage called Jenrick a fraud and a hypocrite.

"That is the rough and tumble of politics," Jenrick says, and that he's "probably been more complimentary about Nigel" than anyone in the Tory party.

"I've said I respected the fact he spoke for millions of people in the country," he adds.

He goes on to praise Farage's consistency on "some of the most important issues" facing Britain.

Kuenssberg points out that Farage is not always consistent, for example, his shifting position on lifting the two-child benefit cap.

Does Jenrick agree with Farage that larger families should receive this benefit now? He did not previously, Kuenssberg notes.

Jenrick says Farage believes in "pro-family policies" and the Tories and Labour have failed to bring them forward.

Pressed on if he agrees with that Reform policy specifically, he says it is "a question Reform has got to think through", and goes on to discuss the detail of the party's position on the issue.

Kuenssberg notes that some people in Newark - Jenrick's constituency - have expressed the desire for a by-election, but he says no, there won't be one.

Jenrick insists he will continue to work for them "as I always have".

He also claims that, despite major polls suggesting he would lose his seat in the last general election, he didn't lose.

Kuenssberg challenges Jenrick on why his constituents should trust him, when former colleagues say he lied about defecting.

He says everyone will have had "situations in their own lives where they have agonised for a long time about whether this is the right thing".

He says that's "exactly what happened here".

"I agonised over this," he says, calling it "very tough" to walk away from the Conservative Party.

Jenrick says "some people" in the Conservative Party are "completely out of touch with what is really happening" and do not sense the "unique challenge" facing the country, where "everything is going in the wrong direction".

There are others in the party who "maybe do sense the seriousness of the situation but are not willing to confront the Conservative Party's role in getting to this point".

Kuenssberg says a lot of people's trust in politicians is gone, as they feel they have been misled. She tells Jenrick: some feel you misled them.

"No, I have been honest with the British public, and that's what matters to me," he says, shaking his head.

He puts the country first, above a political party, Jenrick insists: "You're in politics to change the country for the better."