Robert Jenrick has said he wants the Conservative Party to emerge as the “trade union for the working people” of Britain.
Jenrick, a former immigration minister, is one of four contenders vying to lead the Conservative Party and is widely considered as the race’s frontrunner. In the first two rounds of MP voting, Jenrick finished first — beating rival Kemi Badenoch to pole position on both occasions.
Jenrick, who is considered to be competing with Badenoch for support on the Conservative right, was asked on Sunday morning who he considers to pose the larger political threat to the Tories: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, or Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats.
The Conservative backbencher responded that he wants to take on “both”. “I don’t believe that you have to pick a lane”, he told the BBC.
“I want to bring back the millions of people we lost to Reform by leaving the ECHR, by ending the era of mass migration, and I want to bring about the people we’ve lost to the Lib Dems.”
“I want the Conservative Party to be the trade union for the working people of this country”, he concluded.
The comments came as Jenrick appeared to close the gap on Kemi Badenoch in a survey of the Conservative membership.
Jenrick polled at 25 per cent, up by seven points since the start of September, in the latest ConservativeHome rankings.
However, Badenoch, the shadow housing secretary, retained a strong lead on 36 per cent. The other two contenders, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly, both recorded a score of 13 per cent.
Conservative Party conference begins on Sunday afternoon in Birmingham, giving leadership hopefuls the opportunity to make their case to MPs and the wider party before MP voting resumes in October.
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on X/Twitter here.
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