Dining with his Tory colleagues last week, Robert Jenrick must have felt like Judas at the Last Supper: ANDREW PIERCE takes us inside the build-up to (and fallout from) Westminster’s worst-kept secret

Last week there was unmistakable excitement at the Conservative Party hallowed ground, the Carlton Club. Everywhere I turned MPs and colleagues were discussing Robert Jenrick’s imminent departure for Reformation.

At the reception on the evening of January 8, attended by former prime minister Baroness May, former defense secretary Liam Fox, who twice ran for the Tory leadership, as well as a group of shadow ministers and senior counterparts, there was talk that the deal had already been done.

‘He will be the first shadow chancellor of Reformation England,’ one Tory elder told me. ‘His people can’t stop boasting about it. Who knows if this is true?’ True to form, Jenrick’s team denied everything.

Even though Kemi Badenoch wasn’t at the crowded party, there were spies in the room. Tory HQ phone lines were said to be very hot after the incident.

A senior party official told me yesterday, following Jenrick’s shocking sacking by Badenoch and subsequent departure to Reform: ‘What you heard at the Carlton Club confirmed the rumors we’ve been hearing about Jenrick for weeks. He was going to run because he saw no other way to keep his seat.

‘He would reveal a big surprise in a television interview or newspaper on Sunday. He thought this would give him an advantage in landing the next biggest job after Farage: shadow chancellor. But Kemi burst his bubble and ruined his plans.’

In fact, I can tell you that Jenrick, 44, is scheduled to appear on Laura Kuenssberg’s BBC Breakfast show on Sunday.

Just hours before the Carlton Club reception, the entire shadow cabinet had attended a ‘day out’, led by Badenoch, in a stylish office suite overlooking the Tower of London. According to those in the room, Jenrick asked a lot of questions. However, some of his colleagues observed that he was unusually taking far more notes than everyone else.

Former Tory leadership contender will now seek power alongside Nigel Farage

Now they must be asking themselves if he is working for his new master. Shadow cabinet ministers later went to a group dinner and Jenrick was reported to be ‘well off’. ‘He must have felt like Judas at the Last Supper,’ one senior party figure told me last night.

In the days that followed, Badenoch’s office was under a tight ‘Jenrick resignation watch’. They didn’t have to wait long.

Just six days later, after Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions, a disgruntled Jenrick aide handed him an explosive document. This was his parting speech. And it was nuclear; It was designed to cause maximum damage to the Tory party.

Not only did he make numerous references to May’s local elections, which he predicted would be disastrous for the Conservatives, but in his leaked speech he had harsh words for three colleagues: shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride, shadow home secretary Chris Philp and shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel.

Furious at not being made shadow chancellor after Badenoch replaced him as leader in November 2024, Jenrick mocked the Opposition’s lack of media profile. It also ruined their record in government.

After reading this through, Badenoch, by all accounts cool and calm, spoke to his closest advisors, who agreed that he should go. He went to sleep on his decision and confirmed yesterday morning that she was out.

The news was conveyed to the public in an almost Trumpian fashion: a pre-recorded video shot at his home in Essex was posted on social media just after 11am; It coincided perfectly with the press conference Farage was hosting in Scotland.

Badenoch left Jenrick to personally inform chief whip Dame Rebecca Harris of his dismissal; He was hardly a political heavyweight; This was a deliberate understatement to his former leadership rival, who had been waiting for someone more senior to speak on the phone.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch (right) said she had sacked shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick (left) because of ‘undeniable evidence that he was conspiring to sneak out’ from the party.

Although the news came as a shock to many in Westminster, many Tories already knew Jenrick had been meeting Farage, which culminated in a dinner at a private members’ club at 5 Hertford Street before Christmas.

This was common knowledge in leaky Reformation UK, which prides itself on being a tightly run ship. Just last weekend, Reform’s newly announced candidate for London mayor, Laila Cunningham, warned that Jenrick would not be welcome in the party for ‘allowing migrant hotels to flourish’ when he was immigration minister in Rishi Sunak’s government.

At Reform’s offices in Westminster’s Millbank Tower, once home to Tony Blair’s 1990s glory, many shared Cunningham’s view. ‘Even at that point Nigel hadn’t made up his mind about whether to take Jenrick on,’ a well-placed Reform figure told me. ‘He’s worried that many old Tories will spoil the broth, so to speak.’

Indeed, last summer, when Jenrick attacked Labor after an asylum seeker living in an immigration hotel in Epping attacked a 14-year-old girl, one of Jenrick’s loudest critics was Farage, who accused Jenrick of hypocrisy because of his own immigration history.

The Reform leader said at the time: ‘Jenrick is a fraud, I always thought so.’

Just six weeks ago Jenrick was seen having lunch with former Tory boss David Cameron and his right-hand man George Osborne at Oswald’s, the sister club of 5 Hertford Street. So when did Jenrick make his decision and why?

The answer lies in Badenoch’s dramatically improved performance as Prime Minister and rising poll ratings since the Tory conference in Manchester in October. Jenrick, once ubiquitous on social media and in broadcasts (he would often annoy his shadow cabinet colleagues by entering political arenas), has become noticeably more reserved in recent times.

As Badenoch’s ratings soared, even his supporters remained silent as pro-Jenrick WhatsApp groups abandoned their chats.

Nigel Farage boasted that Robert Jenrick was ‘delivered to me on a plate’ at his Westminster press conference this evening

Reform UK made a post on social media welcoming the Conservative Party, who left the party shortly after being declared an MP for the last time.

He’s now crossed the field and it’s clear he’s not in the best position Jenrick was aiming for.

I’m also told that Reform HQ is furious that Jenrick’s speech was foolishly leaked to Badenoch’s office.

Jenrick wants to remind his Reform opponents that he is resigning in December 2023 over the government’s failure to control Britain’s borders.

But many will remember that such a principled stand came just three weeks after Rishi Sunak handed him over as Home Secretary; Jenrick had assumed he would take it upon himself.

Jenrick’s aides later unequivocally revealed that there had been a “shit ring” on Sunak – a series of explosive interventions designed to further destabilize the then-beleaguered prime minister – confirming the view of many of Jenrick’s colleagues that he was both treacherous and untrustworthy; It was a reputation Jenrick only strengthened this week.

None of this will stop the fiercely ambitious Jenrick in his quest for high office. These great desires of his are shared by his wife, 52-year-old Michal Berkner, an American lawyer.

Many will remember his look of dismay when it was announced that Badenoch had won the leadership in 2024, and his ostentatious eye rolls when applause for Badenoch lasted longer than he wanted.

It is thought that Berkner was the force behind the rebranding in its livery, convincing him to deliver a hard blow to Ozempic, which resulted in a 4th place finish.

A senior Tory, happy to have ruined his own plans to announce his departure, told me last night: ‘Kemi did her best to benefit Robert in the shadow cabinet but he was sniping and scheming at every opportunity.

‘He’s really gone into the lion’s den now. I think he will find that the sniping and scheming has already begun in Reformation. About him.”