Disloyalty and defection: the Tory-Reform psychodrama

Just five days after discussing strategy with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick was sacked for plotting a defection to Reform UK. Jenrick appeared at Nigel Farage's side only a few hours later, branding his former party as "rotten".

Did Kemi Badenoch’s decisive action make her look strong, or did she jump the gun? How long had Jenrick, a former Tory leadership contender, been planning his exit to the right? And does this add yet more fuel to Farage’s claims that the Conservative Party’s days are numbered?

Deputy opinion editor Miranda Green hosts a discussion about the ‘psychodrama’ that has rocked Westminster this week with the FT’s deputy political editor Jim Pickard, columnist and writer of the ‘Inside Politics’ newsletter Stephen Bush, and FT’s chief political commentator Robert Shrimsley.

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Betrayal, plots and a mole who derailed Jenrick’s defection to Reform

Robert Jenrick joins Reform UK after being sacked from Tory shadow cabinet

Jenrick’s sacking is both threat and opportunity for Badenoch

Lunch with the FT Robert Jenrick: ‘I’m unashamedly provincial in my attitudes’

Latest U-turn raises renewed questions over Keir Starmer’s judgment

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Political Fix was presented by Miranda Green, and produced by Julia Webster. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Sound engineering by Breen Turner. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s global head of audio.

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