Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick has been challenged on his plans to take down Reform UK as party leader, as he vows to “get back the Reform voters that we lost”.
Jenrick sailed through to the final three candidates to replace former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with Kemi Badenoch and James Cleverly, knocking Tom Tugendhat out of the race.
Speaking to GB News, Jenrick claimed that following their catastrophic loss in this summer’s general election, the Conservatives now need a leader with “real credibility” to lead them into the next election.
When pressed on what his key issues are, Jenrick told GB News: “Whether you voted Labour, Lib Dem or Reform, there are three principle issues – the NHS, immigration and the economy, and I’ve put forward serious, specific policies to address those.
Robert Jenrick was challenged on his policies as prospective Conservative leader
GB News
“But the first thing we’ve got to do is get back the Reform voters that we lost. And if we don’t do that by having someone who’s got real credibility on this issue and has a track record, as I did when I resigned from cabinet because I felt it was so important to the future of the party, and the country, we’ll never do that.”
Noting his plans to “leave the ECHR” and “set a cap on legal migration”, Jenrick says he believes he can “restore the trust of millions” if elected.
Jenrick explained: “The clear stances I’ve taken, like leaving the ECHR is massively increasing the deportations of illegal migrants from our country, and having a cap set by Parliament for legal migration in the tens of thousands.
“Those are the policies that are going to restore the trust of the millions of people. Small seat Conservatives who should see my party as their natural home, and bring them back to the Conservative Party.”
Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick are the three remaining Conservative candidates
GB News
Host Isabel Webster then grilled Jenrick on the fallout of the Conservatives following their election defeat, noting critics feel the party is currently “not right wing enough”.
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Pressing Jenrick on what direction he hopes to take the Tories in, he responded: “I don’t actually see this as about left or right at all. I see it about reclaiming the common ground of British politics.
“Millions of people in our country who have voted for all different political parties care passionately about securing our borders, about controlling and reducing immigration, about being tough on crime and terrorism and having a more united and integrated country.
“That’s what I want to see. That is the territory I want the Conservative Party to be firmly placed on again.”
Outlining his desire to bring the UK out of the ECHR, Jenrick claimed that Britain will “not secure our borders” unless we withdraw from the convention.
Robert Jenrick said he hopes to ‘win back voters lost to Reform’ if he is elected party leader
GB News
Jenrick stated: “I have come to the firm conclusion that we will not secure our borders, we won’t get foreign criminals out of our country, we won’t tackle terrorism unless we leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
“It is not a reform bill, it’s an organisation of 46 countries from Iceland to Andorra. You’ll never get unanimity to change it, so you have to leave.”
He added: “That is what I want to persuade the public of. If we don’t do that, then I’m afraid we will not get a grip on those really important issues.
“And the public are not going to give us a second or a third chance if we don’t take serious action now to fix these problems.”