Robert Jenrick is everywhere: read his scathing commentary in the opinion pages of the Telegraph, for whom his output surpasses most regular columnists. Catch him in the GB News studio, either as presenter or star guest. His social media feed, meanwhile, has been curated with polished to-camera videos. In the commons, every institutional avenue is exploited to harry Labour spokespeople and admonish their leader.
Jenrick is a blur of activity — opining at will and with little regard to the bounds of his brief.
The developments of this week are a case in point. The shadow justice secretary has been unavoidable even by his own effervescent standards.
Jenrick marked Easter Monday with a social media diatribe denigrating “asymmetrical multiculturalism” and Downing Street’s complicity. The corresponding Telegraph op-ed was typically forceful: “Labour seems to be forgetting Britain is still a Christian country”.
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Tuesday, Jenrick celebrated a campaign victory with a widely shared social media clip. Touting his “own attempt to change the law”, the Tory frontbencher welcomed plans to publish a league table of foreign criminals and their offences for the first time.
Some hours later, Jenrick ventured to the commons for justice questions. Across four appearances at the despatch box, he majored on the independence of the judiciary and its alleged erosion at the hands of activist judges. For this line of questioning, he earned a rebuke from the speaker: “We’re not meant to criticise judges, and this House wouldn’t do so and I’m sure we’d like to change the topic”. But Jenrick, undeterred, continued: “It is important that judges and the manner in which they are appointed is properly scrutinised in this House”.
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The shadow justice secretary returned to the chamber that afternoon for the second reading of the Guidelines (Pre-Sentence Reports) Bill. The introduction of the legislation, Jenrick concluded earlier this month, was a vindication of his criticisms of the sentencing council and its “two-tier” guidance.
After a further reprimand from the deputy speaker for rejecting “untrue” accusations levelled by Labour backbenchers, Jenrick declared: “Everywhere we look — more examples emerge every week — this ideology runs through the Ministry of Justice like rot through the rafters. The principle of equality before the law, one of the great inheritances of our country, is being systematically inverted, replaced by cultural relativism, by a hierarchy of victimhood…
“That is not justice. It is injustice, wrapped in the language of compassion.”
Voice hoarse, he concluded: “[Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood] wears the robes and she dons the wig, but she is not in control of the justice system. Despite the big talk today, there is still two-tier justice on her watch. If she continues to do so little about it, we can only conclude that, at heart, she truly supports it.”
With Wednesday arrived two further opinion pieces. The first, a St George’s Day screed for GB News, took aim at an unpatriotic establishment: its “disdain for our identity goes well beyond Emily Thornberry”. For the Telegraph, Jenrick derided an “institutional cover-up of the costs of immigration”.
But it was the former leadership candidate’s comments on the possibility/necessity of a Reform-Tory “coalition” that drove the day in Westminster. Jenrick, for whom the shackles of collective responsibility have fit loosely this parliament, expressed his “determination” — “one way or another” — to “bring this coalition together”. Addressing students at the UCL Conservative association last month, the shadow justice secretary evoked a “nightmare scenario” whereby Keir Starmer muscles through a divided right to secure a second term.
The stance was immediately interpreted as a slight on Kemi Badenoch’s authority. For his overtures to the Faragist wing of British politics, Jenrick has reportedly earned the nickname “Nigel’s chancellor” among critical Conservatives. The Sky News scoop lent further credence to this characterisation.
On Thursday, a stock letter — penned by Jenrick and addressed to Conservative council candidates — was revealed. In it, the frontbencher offered to personally endorse and campaign for (likely struggling) candidates. But the letter fuelled speculation that Jenrick is seeking to establish a rival network of support within the party.
That has been the extent of Jenrick’s omnipresence this week.
And compare the Conservative justice spokesperson’s profile to those of some of his shadow cabinet colleagues: shadow health secretary Ed Argar, shadow transport secretary Gareth Bacon, even shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel are anonymous by comparison.
Jenrick is out-hustling his colleagues with his incessant interventions — voiced, it would seem, independently of the leadership’s direction.
In opposition, the political spotlight is a limited resource. Successful leaders will recognise when best to vacate it in lieu of some less senior but loyal lieutenant — or for fear of interrupting an opponent while they are making a mistake. Nonetheless, the political focus must remain the reserve of LOTO. When the spotlight becomes contested, with rival intra-party actors staking conflicting claims, the resultant culture cultivates ambition. Incoherence reigns.
Jenrick might not always contradict Badenoch explicitly then — but he does overshadow her. (In a more incidental but no less potent sense, the Conservative leader’s performance at PMQs this week was compromised by Jenrick’s “coalition” comments).
The shadow justice secretary’s activism has, of course, coincided with wider problems for Badenoch. Whatever your chosen metric — PMQs showings, media presence, polling or the sentiment of Tory briefings — Badenoch is struggling to make her mark in a crowded and dynamic political landscape. The debate as to whether she will lead the party into the next general election is already well-developed.
Jenrick’s enduring prominence has stoked this conversation. Political leaders benefit when their internal rivals remain scattered and disorganised. But the shadow justice secretary has found purpose in opposition — perhaps uniquely as a figure on the Conservative frontbench.
That is the ultimate source of Jenrick’s challenge to Badenoch: his activism reflects a variant theory of opposition.
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Jenrick vs Badenoch: continued
During the 2024 Conservative leadership campaign, both campaigns emphasised style at least as much as substance. Badenoch made a virtue of her professed patience — on policy matters in particular. Jenrick stressed his disruptive, attritional strategy: the Conservative Party, his pitch suggested, needed to make immediate advances to consolidate its position.
This divergence has only become sharper since Jenrick’s defeat in November. One common criticism of Badenoch is that she does not give herself, or the shadow cabinet, much to talk about. Not only is there a dearth of policy; the resolved direction isn’t obviously discernible. On his quest for material and wins in Westminster therefore, Jenrick looks increasingly at odds with his leader’s model for opposition.
A ConservativeHome poll this week suggested a majority of Tory members believe their leadership should be moving more quickly in developing its “policy programme”. Badenoch was confronted on this survey in a spiky BBC Radio 4 interview this week. “I’m not getting blown off course because of a poll of a very tiny subset of people”, she maintained.
Badenoch is not for turning. And yet, as the Conservative Party’s lack of progress becomes more apparent, the stakes are exacerbated by a collective recognition of a rival path — which her erstwhile opponent is pursuing in earnest.
Jenrick is quick to capitalise, and even faster to weaponise. His determination to get to a story before Labour and Reform reflects a unique urgency — and an apparently discordant evaluation of what the political moment demands.
Since November then, Jenrick has not merely continued his campaign for the Conservative leadership — he conducts his politics as if he emerged from that contest as victor.
And unfortunately for Badenoch, the membership like what they see. According to the latest ConservativeHome survey, he is by some distance the most popular shadow cabinet minister among party members. Badenoch, who spent years sitting in or around the apex of this league table, now ranks as a middling shadow cabinet minister. She features a full 62 points below Jenrick in twelfth position.
Jenrick’s own trajectory in recent years is also worth contemplating. In the first league table of Rishi Sunak’s premiership, Jenrick — characterised as the then-PM’s man in the Home Office — featured third from bottom on +6.3.
A year later, in November 2023, he featured on -8.9 — a full 75.9 points behind Badenoch.
Jenrick’s ideological journey, from Cameroon enforcer of Boris Johnson’s ill-fated premiership to agitator on the Conservative right, has been marked. But his associated political development, from discarded cabinet minister to grassroots darling, is just as remarkable. And it reflects a strategic cunning.
For Badenoch, the current position will soon prove itself untenable. She is trying the patience of a party renowned for its regicidal ruthlessness. That makes her vulnerable if the Conservative Party’s prospects do not improve in the medium term.
The local elections next week will mark the latest low ebb for the party — a further setback in a long series of setbacks. In the whirlwind of spin that follows, the eyes of members and MPs may well begin to wander towards a rival approach — one that appears more cognisant of the party’s plight.
In the end, it isn’t Jenrick’s positioning as a pretender that should worry Badenoch. It’s that a critical mass of the Conservative Party could soon believe him.
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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