How Tories can use Robert Jenrick's sacking to spark fightback against Reform

“Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat,” Winston Churchill reportedly once said, referring to his switch from the Conservatives to the Liberals and back again.

It’s a remark that Conservative politicians thinking of pledging their allegiance to Reform may wish to consider, if the current popularity of Nigel Farage’s party turns out to be more ephemeral than they suppose.

In the event of a change in the public mood – and the party most closely allied to Donald Trump may face some difficult moments in the coming years – would they have the Churchillian ingenuity required to bring about a return to the fold?

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Nigel Farage welcomes for the former Conservative Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick into the Reform UK party (Picture: Henry Nicholls) | AFP via Getty Images

Harnessing anger over betrayal

Kemi Badenoch’s decision to throw Robert Jenrick out the party for “plotting in secret to defect” to Reform appeared decisive but, in reality, she was left with little choice. Better to choose the moment than allow him to pick his own.

However the loss of such a senior lieutenant is undoubtedly a blow and, if more were to follow, Badenoch’s leadership could come under pressure, for all that she has recently been performing better than during her shaky start as party leader.

That said, Tory anger at what many view as betrayal could help prompt an overdue rethink of the party’s current ‘Reform-lite’ strategy and a return to the One Nation conservatism that has served it so well throughout its long history.

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No turning back

Writing in The Scotsman, Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser suggested centrist voters could back the Tories in order to stop Reform in certain seats, a tactical voting trend seen in countries like France.

“Just as in the successive French presidential elections, Emmanuel Macron benefitted from being in the run-off against Marine Le Pen from the National Rally, so Kemi Badenoch could find her route to Number 10 Downing Street propelled by voters from the centre and centre-left,” he argued.

If the Conservatives are to recover from their current slump, party loyalists need to stop agreeing with Reform, marshal as many supporters as they can, and start taking Farage and co to task. There is no turning back. Reform is a Conservative enemy, not a friend.