Express columnist and Conservative councillor Mieka Smiles is not impressed with the way Robert Jenrick defected to Reform.
Conservative councillor Mieka Smiles pictured on the campaign trail with Robert Jenrick (Image: Mieka Smiels)
If there is one trait that I value most, it’s loyalty. Not blind loyalty – that can detach you from your moral compass – but the kind of loyalty that demands decency, integrity and a sense of duty to those who have supported you. And, as much as he claims otherwise, Robert Jenrick’s move to Reform has demonstrated a complete bypass of any of those values.
For Tories in the North East, it’s been a torrid few years. We’ve lurched from dismay under Theresa May, and her wet handling of Brexit, to jubilation when the Boris boom saw us demolish the Red Wall, and gain seats in places we never even dreamed possible. Then, more recently, came the Labour wipeout of 2024.
Funnily enough, it was in May of that year that I met Jenrick. He came out campaigning with us ahead of the local elections – including the election for Tees Valley mayor – that our candidate Ben Houchen went on to win for a third time.
Jenrick seemed pleasant, quietly spoken, unflashy, and, most of all, like a proper Tory.
How things have changed.
Conservative councillor Mieka Smiles out campaigning with Robert Jenrick (Image: Mieka Smiles)
Alongside a bit of a glow up – which he credits to weight loss jabs – Jenrick seemed to have also taken some kind of elixir that turbocharged his stage presence, fighting spirit and his pretty damn impressive social media output. We all noticed. In fact, many of us here backed him for leader of the party over Kemi, as we believed that, as he was from a town like ours, he understood why levelling up mattered so much, particularly given Labour seemed to have roundly ditched the idea.
But when Kemi won, we did the Conservative thing: accept the result and rally behind her. That’s not to say we didn’t still admire Jenrick – we did. In fact, we were delighted to secure him as the speaker at our annual local association dinner, which was scheduled for later this month.
So you can imagine our astonishment when his defection was announced.
Others have departed from the party with dignity and restraint. Jenrick did not – he chose duplicity, spectacle and contempt – not just for his peers but those who’d backed him.
Mark Francois, the Conservative shadow defence minister, summed up my thoughts earlier today in a TalkTV interview.
He said: “I feel desperately let down by what Robert did yesterday,” before adding “and it’s not just what he did, it’s the way that he did it.”
Exactly.
Robert Jenrick confirming his defection to Reform (Image: Getty)
Watching him publicly turn on colleagues – including Mel Stride and Priti Patel – that he’d sat beside just days before was sickening to watch. As Kemi had predicted earlier in the day, he tried to exit the party in the most damaging way, as he chuckled along with his new boss, Nigel Farage. Grim.
It didn’t have to be this way.
Had he simply said that he was a Conservative at heart but the party no longer reflected his beliefs, people would have respected his honesty. And – if he was a true believer in democracy – he could have stood down as an MP to allow his constituents to make an informed decision at the ballot box. But perhaps that wasn’t part of the Farage deal.
Duplicity is always a bitter pill to swallow. But do you know what? Many of us who were possibly still holding a torch for Jenrick, have huge respect for how Kemi handled his backstabbing games. I think we’re a stronger party for it.
So, what about those members he may have hoped would follow him? His disloyalty will still be ringing in their ears. And a mistake like that has a habit of coming back to haunt you.
Kemi Badenoch sacked Robert Jenrick after discovering he was planning to defect to Reform (Image: Getty)
