Who is Robert Jenrick and will he become leader of the Tory party?
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Why Robert Jenrick, following his first round win in the race to become the next Tory leader, will face questions over his shift from the centre to the right of the party.
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What you need to know about the Conservative leadership race
- The current contenders to become the next Tory leader are Kemi Badenoch, Mel Stride, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly. Priti Patel was eliminated in the first round of voting.
- This list will be whittled down to just two candidates in a series of votes by MPs, before Conservative Party members vote for the next leader.
- The winner of the leadership contest is set to be named on 2 November, ahead of the party conference.
What's Robert Jenrick's story?
The youngest of all the leadership candidates at 42, Robert Jenrick worked as a solicitor in London and Moscow before entering politics, being elected as the MP for Newark in 2014.
Jenrick retained his seat in 2024 with a majority of 21,816 votes.
He has held several senior roles under the last Tory government, having served as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Minister of State for Health and Minister of State for Immigration.
Believing the UK needs a strong policy on migrants, Jenrick resigned from his role as Minister of State for Immigration in 2023 because he felt the planned Rwanda scheme didn't go far enough.
He addressed the "threat" of mass migration in a video launching his campaign for Tory leader, along with the failings of the NHS.
He claimed the NHS has "more money, doctors, and nurses than it did five years ago," but says it is treating no more patients. He said the previous Tory government, under which he was an MP, allowed "hundreds of thousands of people we frankly didn’t need" into the UK.
Speaking to The Telegraph, he praised Margaret Thatcher's time in power, and said Conservatives should be "proud" of British history, adding that he believed "a majority of people in this country share those values and are crying out for a party that is willing to stand up for them."
He was not in favour of Brexit before the 2016 referendum, and now wants the UK to leave the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), believing its rules are preventing the UK from capping the number of people from overseas from entering the country.
And this right-wing stance seems to be working so far.
In the first round of leadership voting, on 4 September, Jenrick scored the most votes from his Tory peers, leading the pack with 28 votes. His closest competition came from Kemi Badenoch (22 votes) and James Cleverly (21 votes).
Is Robert Jenrick's right-wing shift genuine?
What do his politics look like?
Of all the leadership candidates, Jenrick has been on the most extreme journey.
Once considered a moderate voice within the Conservatives, he voted against Brexit and then, after it passed, sided with Theresa May three times as she attempted to pass a deal during her time as PM.
He was nicknamed 'Robert Generic' during his early days in Parliament, due to his moderate views and seeming unwillingness to ruffle feathers in his party, and across politics more widely.
Now, he's considered the most right-wing candidate to take the Tories towards the 2030 election.
He says he wants to drive "real growth" in the UK economy, to deliver "cheap and reliable" energy, to promote "real skills" and crack down on low-value degrees, and to get people off welfare and back into work.
As Housing Minister, Jenrick was involved in the political aftermath of the 2017 Grenfell tragedy, which claimed the lives of 72 residents in a West London tower block. He introduced a £3.5 billion plan to remove cladding from other affected buildings, but faced backlash for asking residents in some properties pay £50 a month to help pay for the removal.
There was also scrutiny over some of the processes he was involved in to get various planning projects approved. These included allegations of donations being given to organisations he was involved in, failing to oppose the building of a new coal mine and approving a London development after sitting next to its developer at a Tory fundraiser.
While employed as the immigration minister he became known for his harsh rhetoric when it came to migrants, and once claimed they would "cannibalise" British communities when resettled in the country.
Jenrick was also responsible for ordering Disney murals at an asylum seeker centre in Kent to be painted over, claiming they were not "age-appropriate" for people arriving to have their applications to stay in the UK processed. This action caused widespread criticism from Labour rivals, and even Conservative MPs.
What's The News Agents take?
Robert Jenrick's success in the first round of voting, Lewis Goodall says, may have left people "puzzled" - whether they're familiar with him or not.
But Ben Riley-Smith, author and political editor at The Telegraph newspaper, tells The News Agents that his relative obscurity could be what makes him so appealing to MPs, and potentially voters as well.
"You've got to step back and think what this debate is about. This is to be opposition leader in the 2020s and hopefully Prime Minister through the 2030s," Riley-Smith says.
"I think the mood is looking at the next generation of Tories. And so I think Robert Jenrick's camp believes his relatively low profile is actually a benefit, because possibly voters and members are willing to turn the page on everything that's been and begin to look forward at the renewal."
That renewal could look more right-wing than many people might have expected after the Tory's defeat by Labour in the July election.
"Since his resignation, he's really staked out this position on the right of the party," Riley-Smith adds.
"So in this race, he is the only person explicitly saying, he wants to pull us out of the European Convention on Human Rights, and he's one of only two candidates who's saying, he wants to bring back David Cameron's 100,000 annual net migration target."
But Emily says that's a reasonably tough stance to take for someone who had been the immigration minister, and was unable to achieve this at the time.
Riley-Smith says he could use his "frustration" to say that position "adds credibility to his goal of becoming the next Tory leader.
But as someone who has swung so forcefully from a moderate to a right-wing position, he should expect questions on the legitimacy of his change in stance during his time in Parliament.
"I think the big question with Robert Jenrick that will be debated a lot in the coming weeks is, did he move to the right because he genuinely had a point of change on all these policies, or was half his eye on the Tory leadership race to come," says Riley-Smith.
"I do think he genuinely believes leaving the ECHR is the right thing to do to secure the reductions in migration."
In July, The News Agents discussed suggestions that the Tory leadership race was likely to come down to a showdown between Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch, and this pairing is now backed by the bookies to become the final two in the race.
Badenoch, Riley-Smith says, has "star power" on her side, which Jenrick comes across as a more "classic political" figure.
"Badenoch's appeal is slightly more ethereal," Riley-Smith adds.
"She has charisma or X Factor or there's something about her that is more engaging and exciting to voters.
"The challenge for Jenrick is to prove that he's got the same."
Listen in full on The News Agents.
