Jenrick
denies he would drop hard-right policies if he became Tory leader
Conservative
MP says his tack to the right has rattled Nigel Farage and confirms he would
like the UK to exit the ECHR
Peter Walker
and Emily Dugan
Fri 11 Oct
2024 16.57 BST
Robert
Jenrick has denied that he would drop his hard-right policies and return to the
Conservative middle ground if he become leader, arguing that his ideas for the
party have left Nigel Farage “rattled”.
Jenrick, who
faces Kemi Badenoch in a ballot of Tory members for the post, confirmed that he
would expect his shadow frontbench to sign up to the plan of immediately
quitting the European convention on human rights (ECHR), a red line for some
centrists.
While
Jenrick’s stance has alarmed many One Nation Conservatives, with their main
representative group, the Tory Reform Group, saying it could not endorse either
him or Badenoch, he insisted the party could unite around his ideas.
The former
immigration minister supported remain in the Brexit referendum and was long
known as a moderate. But after quitting Rishi Sunak’s government over what
Jenrick said was an overly soft approach to asylum, he has reinvented himself
on the Tories’ populist right. Asked about reports he had quietly told
colleagues that if elected party leader he would pivot back to the centre,
Jenrick told the BBC: “I haven’t said that, no.”
He also
denied that his plans, which include reducing net migration to almost zero,
even marked a shift to the right, calling it “the common ground of British
politics”.
When asked
whether policies like quitting the ECHR really represented this – polls have
shown about 20% of voters back the idea – Jenrick replied: “The reason that I
believe we should leave the European convention on human rights is not an
ideological one. I came to this view through the practical experience I had as
a minister.”
A number of
senior Tory figures have expressed their dismay at the choice of two candidates
from the party’s right after the final centrist hopeful, James Cleverly, was
ejected from the race on Wednesday in the fourth and final round of voting by
MPs.
Jenrick
denied that his insistence that all his frontbench team would have to sign up
to the ECHR would mean that Cleverly, who has expressed scepticism at the idea,
could not be a shadow minister.
“I believe
it’s very important that we do this,” he said. “I’ve already said to James, who
is a friend, someone I respect enormously, that I would be delighted for him to
serve in the shadow cabinet should he want to do so.”
In a later
interview with GB News on Friday, Jenrick argued that he was the best-placed
candidate to bring back former Tory voters who had defected to Reform UK, led
by Farage. “I think at the moment he’s rattled by what’s going on, and it’s my
job to make Reform redundant,” Jenrick said.
In another
interview on Friday, Jenrick suggested he regretted ordering cartoon characters
to be removed from the walls of a children’s asylum-seeker centre when he was
immigration minister.
Asked about
the incident on LBC radio, Jenrick initially defended the action, saying he was
“very worried at the time and continue to be” about adults coming to the
country illegally and posing as children.
But when
pressed, he said: “I probably would have done things differently if I had my
time again.”
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