For Sam Smith, Thursday began as an ordinary day. The Conservative councillor was preparing for a budget scrutiny meeting at the Reform-led Nottinghamshire county council hall, where he is leader of the opposition, when he received a message from long-time friend Robert Jenrick.
The MP’s message to the Newark Conservative Association’s group chat queried what local pubs they could visit to oppose Labour’s hike on business rates.
It was not unusual for Smith to hear from the MP. The pair have been friends for more than half a decade and the councillor said he spearheaded Jenrick’s re-election campaign in 2024, successfully helping him face off a Tory wipeout. “We text each other every week and speak on the phone and meet up,” he said.
Less than three hours later, during the council’s scrutiny meeting, Smith was alerted to the shock announcement from Kemi Badenoch that Jenrick had been sacked from the shadow frontbench and the Conservative party.
“Irrefutable evidence” had emerged that the MP was planning to defect, Badenoch said. Smith, who had to make an abrupt exit from the council meeting, said the announcement left everyone in a “state of shock”.
“I couldn’t believe what I was reading. You go through a emotional rollercoaster,” he said. “Then [the] personal: ‘Why haven’t you told me? I’m your friend.’
“Nobody expected it because we’ve been working so closely. We are a close team here in Newark, we support each other at all levels of government,” he said. “I tried to tell the team: ‘Look, let’s just wait to hear both sides of the story.’ Then it went quiet and as the day developed, it became clear.”
For hours, there was radio silence from Jenrick and his team. Smith said he attempted to contact the MP during this time but received no response.
Instead, he watched events unfold through the media and saw his friend emerge as Reform UK’s latest and most high-profile Conservative recruit. At the press conference, Jenrick launched a blistering attack on consecutive Conservative governments and declared: “Britain is broken. Britain needs Reform.”
The MP also said that he had been in talks with Reform since September.
This was an even harder pill to swallow for Smith. “I reflected on how many times we’d interacted as friends since September, which is many times in the pubs and on the streets,” he said. “How many times we’ve interacted professionally, whether that’s helping with case work or council stuff, and to not say that and to not talk to me about it, it’s quite sad.”
It was just before midnight on Thursday that Smith was finally able to speak to his friend.
“I was angry at the fact that he didn’t tell me as a friend, as his campaign manager,” he said. “But I took comfort in the fact that he rang me and said [he] did plan to tell me before … [he] did not plan to defect to Reform yesterday.”
Asked whether he views Jenrick’s decision as a betrayal, Smith said an emphatic yes.
“Absolutely. I see it as a betrayal to the voters of Newark, who voted for conservative policies and values. I see it as a betrayal to his friends who have helped him get re-elected,” he said. “I do think it’s interesting what people do when they see the polls and how quickly their principles change.”
For those voters in Newark, however, the reaction has been mixed. Newark is a rural market town that has been Tory dominated since 1979, apart from one term between 1997 and 2001, during which it was represented by Labour. Jenrick’s majority took a hit in 2024 to just over 3,500 – with the Reform candidate taking 15% of the vote.
Andrew Hind, who is 68 and owns a butcher shop, said he voted for Jenrick and was not surprised by the defection. He said he would still vote for him under the Reform banner at the next general election.
Tricia Gallop, 75, echoed Hind’s views and said Jenrick has been a good MP. “He’s been attending things for the elderly, he was at the coffee meeting we went to. We’ve seen him,” she said.
Others were more critical. Local charity worker Catherine said Jenrick is “not interested” in the local area and criticised the MP for failing to campaign to save Newarks’s world-renowned courses in making stringed instruments.
She said: “He’s barely ever here. He jumps on bandwagons. He’s all out for himself. That’s the only reason he’s a politician. And Newark needs somebody that serves [them well]. He doesn’t.”
Stephen Charnock, the chair of trustees at a food bank in Newark, said the defection was inevitable.
“I want somebody who recognises what the areas of concern are within the area,” he said. “I don’t really care what party anybody actually belongs to, as long as … they’re actually providing the service that I should be getting in an MP.”
Smith said the defection has only strengthened the resolve of Conservative activists in the area, who are determined to battle Jenrick for the seat in the next general election.
Asked whether he still considers Jenrick as a friend, Smith was more hesitant.
“I hope so,” he said. “If he didn’t defect yesterday … I would defend him to the hilt. I’m not going to sit here today and say I don’t respect him because I do.”
But, he added: “I have a lost a friend.”
