Robert Jenrick admits Reform is 'snapping at Tory heels' in determined plea to transform party: 'They're not going anywhere!'

Robert Jenrick admits Reform is 'snapping at Tory heels' in determined plea to transform party: 'They're not going anywhere!'

WATCH NOW: Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick disusses threat of Reform UK

GB News
Georgia Pearce

By Georgia Pearce


Published: 18/10/2024

- 12:10

The Tory leadership hopeful has previously called to 'retire' Nigel Farage from politics

Robert Jenrick has warned that Reform UK are "rising" and "not going anywhere" in a warning to the Conservatives to "get serious".

The Tory leadership hopeful outlined his plans for Britain during GB News's special broadcast Decision Time: The Race to Lead, and claimed that immigration is "the reason that we lost four million of our people to Reform at the general election".


Among Jenrick's policies as prospective leader of the opposition, he has also pledged to "leave the ECHR" and "cap legal migration" in a bid to win back voters who ditched the party for Reform UK.

Speaking to GB News about his vision for the Conservatives, Jenrick affirmed that whoever wins, must "get the Conservative family back together".

Nigel Farage, Robert Jenrick

Robert Jenrick has claimed that Reform UK are 'rising' and are 'not going anywhere'

PA / GB News

Jenrick explained: "It doesn't just mean uniting the 121 conservative MPs, it means getting back all small-c conservatives.

"People who watch your programme - some will have voted Conservative this election, some will have voted Reform, some won't vote at all, and some will have voted for Labour or the Lib Dems."

Issuing a warning to the Conservatives ahead of their election result, Jenrick urged members to "get serious" on the issues they care about as he "doesn't want to wait ten years in opposition".

Jenrick stated: "I don't think the Conservative Party has time. You've seen in 100 days the damage this Labour Government has made, and I don't want to wait ten years in opposition."

Robert Jenrick

Jenrick appeared alongside Kemi Badenoch in GB News's Tory leadership special on Thursday night

GB NEWS

Hitting out at Reform UK, he added: "You've got Reform snapping at our heels, they're not going anywhere. If anything, they're consolidating, they're rising.

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"If the Conservative Party wants to exist in a few years time, let alone win the next election, it's got to get serious on these issues, in particular on immigration."

Pressed by host Stephen Dixon on his pledge to leave the ECHR, Jenrick was warned of "falling into the same trap as Rishi Sunak" by "promising the world and not delivering it".

Standing firm on his policies, Jenrick told GB News: "I think you have to make these difficult choices. You can't say you're going to secure our borders and not say you're going to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. It's just not possible.

"The European Convention on Human Rights prevents us from getting those terrorists, those foreign criminals, out of our country, from securing our borders. We've seen time and again examples of it."

\u200bRobert Jenrick

Robert Jenrick urged the Conservatives to 'get serious' to avoid 'ten years in opposition'

GB News

Comparing his ambitions for the Tories to his rival Kemi Badenoch, Jenrick made clear there are "obvious dividing lines" between the two of them.

He explained: "I want to cap legal migration, my opponent won't say that.

"I want to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, she doesn't want to do that or won't say so.

"So it's a promise of a plan tomorrow versus an actual plan today."

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