Nigel Farage stands to benefit from having a talented politician with cabinet experience
Daily Telegraph 18/02/26
It’s hard to know which Tory claim of the last week is more ridiculous. The one suggesting Kemi Badenoch handled Robert Jenrick’s defection to Reform well. Or the one suggesting the Tories are better off without him. We’ve heard both absurdities in the last week, when the reality is Nigel Farage has been handed yet another nail to hammer into the Tory coffin.
Let’s take the first one first: that Badenoch did a great job in firing him. It’s true that taking fast and decisive action – with a rapid briefing on her own terms – was a technical success. But too many people are missing a more fundamental point: Jenrick partly left because she consistently treated him badly after her leadership win.
Jenrick ran a decent, energetic leadership campaign and had extensive experience in Government, not least as a cabinet minister. Even though Tory ranks were hugely depleted after the 2024 election, she gave him a junior shadow cabinet position – shadow justice secretary – that was clearly beneath him.
Further, even as he became the shadow cabinet’s highest-profile and most effective performer, she left him in this junior role. A whole bunch of nonentities therefore sat in more senior positions, dominating the highest-stakes Parliamentary occasions, while doing nothing to improve the party’s position in the polls.
It was natural Badenoch should have rewarded those who backed her leadership campaign – that’s politics. However, it was an act of stupid self-harm not to give a much higher profile role to someone she beat narrowly and who immediately agreed to serve in her team.
And this takes us to the next claim: that the Tories are better off without him. This is extraordinary. Jenrick was one of the few politicians who was really taking the battle to Labour. In a role that only lends itself occasionally to high-profile campaigning – for example, over the early release of prisoners – Jenrick put a series of issues on the map you wouldn’t expect to hear much about.
He put fare-dodging briefly at the centre of British politics after his film showing the huge number of people who illegally push through the gates on the London Underground. Clearly in response, Transport for London security staff were finally seen mob-handed at stations where fare-dodging is rife. He even managed to get interest in the issue of tool theft, via another of his films.
More broadly, his media performances and speeches were assured and clear. While many politicians barely improve over their careers, Jenrick measurably stepped up his performances over time. Very simply, he was a much better performer than Badenoch and he leaves a massive hole in the shadow cabinet.
Reform now has an MP who can execute high-quality media performances on a range of issues and who is an experienced and competent parliamentarian. Crucially, he also understands how the government works. As they prepare for power, Jenrick will be able to advise Farage on everything from how the cabinet works to the appointment of civil servants and advisers.
The last few days have seen a number of briefings suggesting Jenrick had become difficult to work with. I don’t know him at all; I once had coffee with him and talked about opinion research, but in 45 minutes I got no feel for him. I would be very surprised, but it’s possible he was a difficult colleague and it’s possible he’s unpleasant; I have no idea.
If this is true, we’ll know soon as fireworks will surely follow – for Farage has a long history of combustible relationships. At Ukip, he fell out with former Tory MP Douglas Carswell and with former journalist and MEP Patrick O’Flynn. At Reform he fell out with fellow MP Rupert Lowe.
It has been suggested Farage falls out with people who challenge him and that he doesn’t like having people of similar status around him. Indeed, this has been raised as a further worry about what a Farage-led government would look like.
But in hiring Jenrick – as well as former Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi – Farage has blown up that suggestion. It would appear the Reform leader is indeed starting to prepare for Government in earnest.
If anything, this whole saga raises the question as to whether it’s in fact Badenoch who doesn’t like the challenge of having top people around. She treated Jenrick poorly and, while she has finally promoted Nick Timothy (to replace Jenrick), after his superb work exposing the West Midlands’ police mishandling of the Maccabi Tel Aviv game, Katie Lam still sits in relative obscurity in a junior role. There are other politicians of status and quality who linger on the backbenches.
Across Westminster, people are desperately talking up Badenoch. This simply isn’t reflected in polls on voting intention, and the party is heading towards oblivion.
In a month, when public memories of the chaos of Jenrick’s departure totally fade, the reality will be this: the party’s recent top performer will be attacking them for their failures in government and their lack of imagination in opposition. This is a disaster for Kemi Badenoch and an incredible boost for Nigel Farage.
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