Samizdata quote of the day – who did Robert Jenrick throw under the bus?

Thomas Fairfax (Yorkshire) · Slogans & Quotations · UK affairs

I can’t kid myself any more. The party hasn’t changed… and it won’t. The bulk of the party don’t get it. Don’t have the stomach for the radical change this country needs. In opposition, it’s easy to paper over these cracks, but the divisions – the delusions – are still there. And if we don’t get the next Government right, Britain will likely slip beyond the point of repair. Everything is on this. I cannot, in good conscience, stick with a party that’s failed so badly, that isn’t sorry and hasn’t changed. That I know in my heart won’t… can’t… deliver what’s needed. That’s why I resolved to leave.

– Robert Jenrick

January 17th, 2026 |

3 comments to Samizdata quote of the day – who did Robert Jenrick throw under the bus?

• Paul Marks.

  January 17, 2026 at 9:09 am

  It was a powerful attack.

  I do not know if the account of the Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet is accurate – but if (if) it is, then the attack was not just powerful, it had a foundation.

  Kemi Badenoch has laid out good policies (on government spending, immigration, the ECHR and so on) – arguably better (yes BETTER) than the policies that Nigel Farage has laid out – but Robert Jenrick claims that the Parliamentary Party would not support Kemi Badenoch in practice to actually DELIVER these policies – no more than they supported Liz Truss when the establishment sabotaged her government.

  The one weakness in the speech of Robert Jenrick (and I did listen to it – from start to finish) was that he did not mention the institutional (institutional) barriers – the officials and “experts”.

  As former Prime Minister Liz Truss (and others) have pointed out – in Britain it is unelected officials and “experts” who have the real power (the Bank of England and so on), and this is a horrible state-of-affairs.

• Lee Moore

  January 17, 2026 at 9:20 am

  Unlike in America, where the institutional structure is ossified, in the UK it is actually possible to deal with the institutional barriers that Paul mentions. But, because the barriers include the courts and the House of Lords, as well as the Blob, it is not possible to deal with the institutional barriers without waiting a year for the Parliament Act to tick over.

  This seems to me not a bad thing. A Reform government can explain on Day 1 that it isn’t actually the government for the first year, and it can spent that time getting its ducks in a row legislatively and in terms of personnel. And starting on the process of cutting public spending – using the Money Bill trick. And resiling from the many treaties that need resiling from.

  Meanwhile waiting a year while the House of Lords has hissy fits, and the courts order Ministers to drink caster oil will help persuade the persuadable that the new government is not a fascist dictatoship but a respectable rule of law bunch.

• david morris

  January 17, 2026 at 10:30 am

  Did he bring out a cut onion from his pocket during his “off the cuff” speech ?

  Spare me the sanctimonious twaddle, Bobby.

  You – as a professional politico – are part & parcel of the problem this country faces.

All content on this website (including text, photographs, audio files, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa