<\/p>\n
The key moment of Robert Jenrick’s defection to Reform UK had it all.<\/p>\n
It was politics at its most raw: where choreography hasn’t had time to get its boots on.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of us were crammed into a room at Reform HQ designed for far fewer \u2013 and then when Nigel Farage unveiled his latest recruit, there was no sign of him.<\/p>\n
Jenrick managed to be late to his own defection, in the latest dollop of farce on a day groaning with drama, jeopardy, skulduggery and plotting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It was a day which began with a tactical masterstroke from the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who got wind Jenrick was going to jump ship so pushed him overboard herself.<\/p>\n But strategically it is Reform showing regular momentum and magnetism \u2014 to plenty of Conservatives at least.<\/p>\n This is a pivotal waymarker in the remoulding of the Right of British politics.<\/p>\n It is the biggest coup for Farage so far and will help him take on the jibe from his opponents that Reform is a one man band.<\/p>\n The Conservative Party, so long the leviathan of British politics, had already been crushed by the electorate and had already been leaking like a burst pipe towards Reform.<\/p>\n Now it has now lost one of its most high profile figures.<\/p>\n There are, inevitably, cries of betrayal from Robert Jenrick’s former colleagues, who are now indulging in the ritual sledging of his character.<\/p>\n “He was overwhelmed by personal ambition in a Macbeth type way,” one shadow cabinet minister claimed.<\/p>\n Jenrick responded that given he had been the bookies’ favourite to be the next Conservative leader and was now joining a party with a very prominent and successful leader, it was a bit rich to put this all down to personal ambition.<\/p>\n Nigel Farage now faces a familiar critique \u2013 that given the number of Tory defectors he is welcoming, does he really lead the Conservatives 2.0 rather than a distinctive, new, insurgent force?<\/p>\n He told me they had welcomed a former Green councillor this week and would unveil a Labour defector next week.<\/p>\n But is undoubtedly true that the vast majority of Reform’s recent high profile signings are former Conservatives.<\/p>\n It is a perception the party knows it has to manage astutely.<\/p>\n And Labour were quick to point out the various past moments where Nigel Farage had been incredibly critical of Robert Jenrick.<\/p>\n But, in short, defections and how they appear are a nice problem for a party to have \u2013 and far better than the alternative.<\/p>\n A final thought: I wonder what the medium and long term consequences there may be of Kemi Badenoch’s ruthlessness in giving Robert Jenrick the boot.<\/p>\n Nigel Farage said he had thought it was 60\/40 Robert Jenrick would join his party.<\/p>\n 60\/40 isn’t much better odds than tossing a coin. And yet there he was. What conversations between the two men, which may have happened in the coming days, weeks or even months, had to be rushed in a matter of hours after Badenoch’s intervention?<\/p>\n And what trouble could that store up for both men in the months ahead? Let’s see.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Nigel #Farage #gains #Tory #biggest #coup<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The key moment of Robert Jenri… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[242],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}