Senior UK opposition politician sacked over ‘plot’ to join hard-right party

LONDON: Britain’s main opposition Conservative Party was on Thursday caught up in a top-level row over allegations another senior Tory was planning to join Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party.

Reform has been leading by double-digit figures in the polls for the past year as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government comes under fire over immigration, economic growth and the cost of living crisis.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said she had fired her justice spokesperson Robert Jenrick, accusing him of “plotting in secret” to defect to Reform.

Badenoch said she had “irrefutable evidence” that Jenrick had been conspiring to defect “in a way designed to be as damaging as possible” to the Conservatives.

Jenrick, 44, who stood against Badenoch for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 2024, served as immigration minister under former Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak.

He has been outspoken on the subject of immigration, which has become a major political issue.

Last year saw the second-highest annual number of migrants arrive on UK shores in small boats since records were started in 2018.

A total of 41,472 migrants landed on England’s southern coast in 2025 after making the perilous Channel crossing from northern France.

Reacting to Jenrick’s sacking, Farage said that “of course” he had had conversations with Jenrick.

His ouster comes days after former Conservative finance minister Nadhim Zahawi announced he had joined Reform. Zahawi, who is no longer an MP, is the latest of about 20 ex-Conservative lawmakers to have switched to Reform in recent years.