Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick found himself on the end of a brutal grilling today on GB News as his record was brought into question.
Jenrick, who resigned as immigration minister in 2023 “with great sadness” over the Government’s Rwanda policy, previously worked as the housing minister under Boris Johnson.
But he was ousted in 2021 by the former prime minister, and Jenrick said on GB News he is still unsure as to why.
Camilla asked: “You resigned in the last parliament, but a couple of parliaments before that, Boris sacked you in the reshuffle of 2021. Why did he do that?”
Jenrick's record as housing minister was brought into question
GB NEWS
Jenrick responded by passionately defending his record: “You will have to ask Boris. But he himself acknowledged that it was a mistake to row back on the housing reforms we had planned at the time.
“They would have helped hundreds of thousands of young people onto the housing ladder and started the economic growth needed in this country. That is what I want to do in this country, I want to get people back onto the housing ladder, I think that is a fundamentally conservative thing.”
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PACamilla then probed Jenrick on “not achieving” the government’s target of 300,000 new homes, saying “the Tories kept undershooting it, and you were in post”.
He hit back: “When I was housing secretary, I brought the number of new homes in this country up to the highest level since Margaret Thatcher was prime minister.
“It fell back significantly when I left office. My record as housing secretary was the best in recent decades. I want to go back to those levels.”
“If you were so great, why did Boris Johnson sack you?”, Camilla asked once more.
Robert Jenrick joined Camilla Tominey on GB News
GB NEWS
“The former prime minister hated sacking people, in fact he should have sacked a few people like Dominic Cummings sooner.
“So why did he sack you if you were so great at housing secretary? What reasons did he give you at the time?”
He responded: “People can see that when I’ve been in government, I have always taken difficult decisions. I have always fought for solutions to the big problems facing our country.
“Whether it’s to reform the planning system, whether it’s slashing red tape for small businesses or whether as immigration minister, getting down legal migration for the first time.
“Tackling the boats, signing deals like the one with Albania which led to an almost 40 per cent reduction in the amount arriving, that number started to rise again after I resigned.”