<\/p>\n
For a long time, Robert Jenrick\u2019s transformation from a David Cameron-supporting remainer to an anti-immigration rightwinger did not convince many of his political peers \u2013 least of all Nigel Farage.<\/p>\n
Only last year, the Reform UK<\/a> leader was describing him as a \u201cfraud\u201d and saying he was sceptical that Jenrick was genuine, branding him \u201cRobert the Generic, Robert the Remainer and Robert the I Don\u2019t Stand Particularly for Anything at all\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are people in politics who are there through conviction and there are people in politics who are there because they want to reach rank, position and all that comes with that,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really still not sure about Jenrick, to be honest with you, I\u2019m really not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, the verdicts of some of Jenrick\u2019s Tory colleagues on his political behaviour are similarly damning and centre around his unbridled ambitions.<\/p>\n One said Jenrick \u201cdoes not have a truly rightwing bone in his body\u201d but merely goes whichever way the political wind is blowing to serve his own career.<\/p>\n Matthew Parris, the former Tory MP and current newspaper columnist, on Thursday declared: \u201cIf you were to remove ambition from the core of Robert Jenrick, he would collapse like a boneless chicken.\u201d<\/p>\n But Jenrick, 44, privately insists that his political journey is a serious one, caused by radicalisation while he was a Home Office minister.<\/p>\n He may have started off backing the remain campaign, but by the time he was a minister in Suella Braverman\u2019s department he became frustrated by the party\u2019s failure to take action to meet its promises on bringing down migration levels.<\/p>\n It was then that he ordered children\u2019s murals depicting Mickey Mouse and other cartoon characters at an asylum centre to be painted over to make the building less welcoming<\/a>.<\/p>\n During this time, he also began to build a reputation for ruthlessness, with advisers who were prepared to practise political dark arts behind the scenes in service of his aims.<\/p>\n Once considered a friend of Rishi Sunak, his resignation as immigration minister in late 2023, saying the Rwanda scheme to deport illegal migrants \u201cdoes not go far enough\u201d, was a bitter blow for the then prime minister.<\/p>\n And in the months after that, his allies were thought to behind what was known in Westminster as a \u201cgrid of shit\u201d \u2013 a series of interventions designed to destabilise Sunak.<\/p>\n After Sunak lost the 2024 election, Jenrick was quickly a frontrunner for the leadership, undergoing a makeover and weight loss, and greatly expanding his social media presence with \u201cwalk and talk\u201d videos addressing voters directly.<\/p>\n