Robert Jenrick revealed a surprising fact about his wife’s favourite hobby as he called on the Tories to “get our act together”. Mr Jenrick, who is widely tipped to replace Kemi Badenoch as Tory Party leader should she be pushed, warned that the Tories have to get better at forcing voters to listen to them.
He told an event at party conference: “I read the comments underneath news articles. “My wife likes to lie in bed and read out comments about me! It’s a good discipline, and at the moment even when you’re saying the right things people think ‘well, they had 14 years’, or ‘why didn’t you do this when in government’, or ‘we like you but why don’t you join Reform’. The Conservative Party’s got to be painfully honest about the mistakes it made when it was in government, and we’ve got to show not tell.
“That is the most important thing: it’s not about speeches or words, it’s actually about demonstrating by actions that we are a different Conservative Party.”
Returning to his wife, Mr Jenrick further revealed “when I make mistakes, an apology is not enough!
“You have to actually demonstrate that you’re a changed man, and that’s what the Tory party’s got to do.”
In signs of dissatisfaction with Ms Badenoch’s current shadow Cabinet, Mr Jenrick heavily hinted that those defending the immigration record of the previous government should be sacked in order to show voters the party gets its mistakes and has changed.
He pointed to Keir Starmer’s suspension of Jeremy Corbyn and sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey as clear examples that told voters he was leading a changed party.
His comments appeared particularly aimed at shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel, who was rebuked by Ms Badenoch in January for defending her time at the Home Office which saw the ‘Boriswave’ of immigrants explode past one million.
Dame Priti insisted that those who came to Britain during the last government “came here [to] work and contribute to our economy, the brightest and the best”.
She said: “We made it quite clear it would be people from the rest of the world, people with skills based on our economy.
“People in the pandemic came here, health and social care visas, what would have happened to our NHS? Are we now saying we don’t need those people in our NHS?”
Mr Jenrick dodged renewed questions about his own leadership ambitions, though admitted the Tories need a “different look” and “different people” at the top of the party.