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.”
