Robert Jenrick MP has refused to rule out running to be the new leader of the Conservative Party and accused the Prime Minister of surrendering to people smuggling gangs.
In a discussion with GB News’ Political Editor Christopher Hope, he said: “Well, I’m desperately sad about what happened. And the fact that good Conservative colleagues, public servants, lost their jobs.
“But my greatest disappointment is that millions of Conservative voters walked away from us and they did that not because we were too left-wing or right-wing, we had this slogan or that slogan, they did it because we failed to deliver for the British public on the fundamental things that we promised back in 2020.
“We said we’d get Brexit done and we did that and that was a great achievement and there were other things which I’ll fiercely defend in our record. But we promised that we would have a strong economy and lower taxes, we promised we would have a strong NHS and we promised we would have a secure border and on each of those things we didn’t do what we said we were going to do.
“Understandably, the public have punished us for that. We ended up delivering lower economic growth and higher taxes than Conservative voters should expect, the quality of service in the NHS wasn’t good enough.
“Instead of controlling and reducing migration, we created a legal migration system. It was more liberal than the one we had in the EU and net migration ran at three-quarters of a million.
“For the first time in my lifetime, we have the power, we have the levers within our hands to control our borders and our legal migration system, but the decisions that the then ministers took unfortunately created a system which was far too liberal.
“That was an insult to the British public. That was like sticking two fingers up to those people who had voted for us and in particular, those people who had voted for Brexit during the referendum.
“We have to learn the lessons from that because only by understanding what we got right and what we got wrong, that we can begin to restore trust and begin the long process of rebuilding the Conservative Party is at the heart of it.”
He was asked if he shared blame for the defeat as a former immigration minister, he said: “It’s on all of us. Politics ultimately is a team game and I’m not in the business of blaming this person or that, we all bear our share of responsibility.
“I did set out very clearly my views and I resigned from the Cabinet because I had profound disagreements with the Prime Minister at the time on that. But that is essentially in the past. Now, I’m not as I say in the business of blaming people. I care about the future of the party.
“I joined this party aged 16. I was there in 1997 in Wolverhampton where there are not many Conservatives, trust me, I want to see it succeed. I believe it can do. But we can only begin to do that if we have a proper diagnosis of the problem and of what went wrong.
“That’s why I’m on your program, that’s the conversation I’m trying to start now in the Conservative Party and in the country. If we can do that, and if we can ultimately be a more serious party, one which is willing to do the difficult things, you know, on immigration, we said we’re going to do whatever it takes. We didn’t do whatever it takes.
“I, along with colleagues, put forward amendments to the Rwanda bill which would have made it the robust deterrent than it should have been. Others refused to go that far. We can’t be in that position ever again.
“The Conservative Party I want to build is one which keeps its promises to the public. If we can do that, and have credibility and authenticity when we make these promises, then the public, our voters will begin to come back to us.”
On whether Rishi Sunak should be blamed personally for the defeat, he said: “I think Rishi is a good man who worked extremely hard and tried his best as Prime Minister…there is an important lesson for the party there, which is that you have to deliver on your promises.
“You should never take your voters for granted and just assume that people who have voted Conservative in the past will vote Conservative in the future. That has led to the rise of Reform, it has given the space for reform to prosper.
“In two thirds of the constituencies that we lost on Thursday, the margin of defeat was less than the Reform vote. So my task is now how do we bring those people home?
“I want all small-c Conservatives, whether it’s in the north of England and the Midlands, where I represent, or frankly anywhere in this country to feel that the Conservative Party is their natural home. That’s what we’ve got to set out now in the weeks and the months ahead as we begin this process of rebuilding our party.”
He said Labour’s housing plans build on his own legacy as a minister: “When I was Housing Secretary, we managed to get housing starts up to the highest level since 1987. After the last Labour government, remember, left housing starts at their lowest peacetime level since the 1920s.
“So we should take no lessons from the Labour Party on housing and home ownership…I don’t think you can begin to fix the housing crisis unless you tackle the migration crisis. Because, remember, you’d have to be building a new home in this country every five minutes, day and night, 365 days a year merely to keep up with the number of people legally arriving.
“That’s not even the illegal migrants and during the campaign, we learned from Angela Rayner that she wants to build social houses purely for refugees and illegal migrants rather than for British people and our children and grandchildren, which seems a very strange priority to me.
“What we as Conservatives stand for is home ownership ,is helping the next generation on to the housing ladder, but we don’t want to ruin our beautiful countryside. I believe you can do that by focusing those homes in the big urban areas of this country. Let’s wait and see if that’s the approach…
“I want to build more homes. I want young people to have the dream of home ownership. That’s a core fundamental Conservative belief, but I think you can do that in the right way. That’s why when I created housing targets, for example, we did a 30% uplift in the big cities, opposed by Labour last time, and it’s why I worked with Roger Scruton to make sure that homes can be built beautifully in keeping with the history and the heritage and the vernacular of areas. Let’s see if Labour keep that agenda going.”
On illegal immigration, he said: “I was not surprised, but very, very frustrated that the first act of this incoming Labour government was to scrap the only credible deterrent that we have, the Rwanda scheme…we saw evidence, we saw it in Ireland, we’ve seen anecdotally through what journalists yourself are hearing in the camps in northern France.
“Keir Starmer has essentially surrendered to the people smuggling gangs. He has said it’s open season, now to come to the UK, we have no deterrent, we have no way of removing you, come here
“I confidently predict, I don’t do this with any pleasure, that this summer we’ll see a huge number, a record number of small boat arrivals, and it will be because of the intervention. The first thing that this incoming Labour government has done is to scrap our deterrent and the policy that they’ve announced is hopelessly naive.
“Instead of having a deterrent, they said they’re going to create some new border command. It seems to be replicating what we already have. Yvette Cooper said she’s going to hire a leading military figure to run this and we already have one…this is not a credible way to secure our borders and I’m afraid this is a foretaste for what’s to come.”
He refused to rule out standing as a candidate in the forthcoming Conservative leadership contest: “I honestly think this is just a few days since we’ve suffered this devastating defeat, I’m sure they’ll come time for discussing things like that in the future. But I think that’s a self-indulgent argument to have today.
“What I am interested in is ideas and principles, not individuals and personalities. And I think the task for the Conservative Party right now is two-fold. One is to understand, what do we actually believe in? And of course, we should be a broad church, but we have to have a creed.
“The Conservative Party has to understand its beliefs, and have a coherent set of principles upon which to unite around and secondly, we need to get back into the business of opposing this incoming Labour government and that business begins today.
“That’s why I’m here on your show. That’s why I’m highlighting what they’re doing on illegal migration and crime, incidentally, because Kier Starmer is also saying that he’s going to release dangerous criminals onto our streets rather than keeping them in prison. There’s a job to do for us now…”
He added: “As somebody who believes in secure borders in our sovereignty and low taxes in the family, in strong defence, those are the sorts of principles we need to unite around. As I say, there’s a long history of the Conservative Party being a big tent, but it’s got to be a strong tent. It’s got to be a broad church with a creed, something we can unite around. That’s what I hope to play a part in.”
Jenrick said he would welcome the return of Boris Johnson to politics: “I think Boris is one of our most brilliant Conservatives. I said during the campaign that he should come back and he did, albeit at the very last minute.
“I would be very happy to see Boris back actively involved in the Conservative Party, indeed, I’d be happy to see him in Parliament. This is a moment in which all of the strongest players need to be on the pitch.
“The Conservative Party has got to rally around, rebuild our party and if Boris wants to be part of that, I’d be delighted.”
He said Nigel Farage should not be allowed to join the Tories: “I respect Nigel, he and I share a number of things in common. We obviously both believe in strong borders, but I don’t think that Nigel can or should be part of the Conservative Party.
“He said that he doesn’t want to join the party, he said he wants to replace the Conservative Party and as long as that is his view, there can’t be a role for him in the party.
“But I will work with anyone who shares my determination to secure our borders and to hold an open borders Labour Party to account for everything they do.”
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