I told Kemi Badenoch to kick Liz Truss out of the Conservative Party, claims Tory turncoat Robert Jenrick
Robert Jenrick has claimed he pressured Kemi Badenoch to kick Liz Truss out of the Conservative Party “many times” before her dramatic departure to Reform UK.
The former minister said the Conservative Party leader’s refusal to exile Ms Truss was one of the reasons she eventually decided to defect to Nigel Farage’s party.
Mr Jenrick was booted from the Conservative Party frontbench last week after claiming Ms Badenoch was “secretly plotting” to leave Reform.
He has since launched a scathing attack on his former colleagues, saying the party “betrayed its voters and members” and was “in denial or dishonest” about its record.
On Monday he told how the former prime minister’s continued membership of the Conservative Party after its disastrous mini-budget had led him to question the party’s desire for change.
He told Sky News: “If I were leader of the Conservative Party, and this is ancient history now, I would kick Liz Truss out of the party because the mini-Budget was careless and incompetent.
“It’s really hurt people at the moment… people’s house sales are down, they’ve been worrying about mortgages, investments, pensions. This is wrong.
“This is not someone who should be a member of your political party.”
He added: “And my point was, has the Conservative Party changed? I don’t believe it has.”
“If the party has truly changed, why not fire Liz Truss? You know, I told Kemi to do that. She chose not to. And that speaks to a broader truth.”
Ms Truss, who spent just seven weeks in office before being sacked by her own MPs in 2022, has previously been forced to deny she is Britain’s worst prime minister.
Under his leadership the pound fell to a 37-year low as a result of his massive borrowing package to finance the biggest tax cuts in half a century.
Mr Jenrick also told Times Radio that Ms Badenoch was not ready to accept how broken Britain was.
“Unless you take ownership, unless you see what’s really going on, unless you understand the magnitude of the challenge, I don’t believe you can even begin to fix the problem,” he said.
“Kemi and the Conservative Party seem to have their heads in the sand at the moment.”
writing for Daily Telegraph On Saturday, Ms Badenoch continued to insist that Britain was still successful.
He said: “Ours remains one of the most successful, resilient and influential countries in the world. A country that has reinvented itself over and over again. A country whose people quietly go about their business while politicians argue.
“Telling them their country is over doesn’t strengthen the British people, it drags them down.”
