Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Robert Jenrick has been sacked as Conservative shadow justice secretary for “plotting” to defect from the party, as leader Kemi Badenoch battles to stem losses to Reform UK.
“I have sacked Robert Jenrick from the Shadow Cabinet, removed the whip and suspended his party membership with immediate effect,” Badenoch wrote on X on Thursday.
“I was presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible to his Shadow Cabinet colleagues and the wider Conservative Party,” she added.
Badenoch’s decision comes days after former Tory chancellor Nadhim Zahawi joined Nigel Farage’s Reform, becoming the highest-profile defection to the party, which is leading in the polls.
Jenrick previously ran for the leadership of the main opposition party but lost to Badenoch.
This is a developing story