Tories to step up attacks on Reform economic policy after Jenrick acrimony

Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick have spoken bitterly about each other in interviews since the latter’s defection. Photograph: Getty Images

The Conservatives plan to intensify their attacks on Reform’s economic policy as they gear up for a fight to the death between the two big parties of the right, a battle brought to new levels of acrimony by Robert Jenrick’s defection.

While Jenrick, the former shadow justice secretary, insisted he was “uniting the right” in signing up to Reform, Kemi Badenoch portrayed her former colleague as dishonest and no loss to the Conservatives, saying: “Nigel Farage is doing my spring cleaning for me.”