Tory leadership contender Jenrick defends changing stance on Brexit

Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick had previously allegedly described Brexit as a ‘dystopia’.

Robert Jenrick appearing on the BBC 1 current affairs programme, Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg (BBC/PA) (PA Media)

Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick defended changing his stance on Brexit, when asked about a letter he is said to have signed describing it as a “dystopia”.

Mr Jenrick voted to remain in the EU in the Brexit referendum but later backed leaving the bloc.

A viewer sent in a question to Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg asking whether he agreed with the contents of a letter he had signed at the time of the referendum saying that leaving the EU would “lead us into a dystopia”.

“Well, I don’t remember that letter, but my view has changed absolutely.

“But I was concerned that it would prove difficult for the British state to realise all the benefits of Brexit, and in some respects, I’ve been justified in that regard.

“We’ve had a great deal of economic and constitutional disruption as a result of leaving the European Union, but I don’t think we’ve gained all of the benefits, and that’s what I want to see.”

Nicknamed “Robert Generic” when first elected to the Commons in 2014 for his apparently moderate politics, Mr Jenrick has gradually moved to the right of the Tory Party.

He told Laura Kuenssberg that leaving the EU had given the UK “the ability to control our borders and to have a proper philosophy as a country on our immigration system” but that after the 2019 election, the Tory Government “created an immigration system which was even more liberal than the one we had in the EU”.

The MP for Newark resigned as immigration minister last December, claiming legislation designed to revive the former Rwanda deportation policy did “not go far enough”.

In his pitch to Tories to replace Rishi Sunak as leader, he has advocated for leaving the European Convention on Human Rights as a way to tackle immigration.

He told Laura Kuenssberg that the Good Friday agreement is “not reliant upon the ECHR”.

MPs were told by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee earlier this year that it is “unlikely the UK could withdraw from the ECHR without triggering a review procedure built into the Good Friday Agreement”.

Mr Jenrick has said he would make Jacob Rees-Mogg, who lost his seat in the July election, Conservative Party chairman.

Both of the two final Tory leadership contenders lean to the right of the party, as Mr Jenrick is set to face off against Kemi Badenoch.

The Tory Reform Group (TRG) of centrist Tories has refused to endorse either of them.

James Cleverly, a candidate who urged the party to be “more normal” in his pitch to members at party conference, was knocked out of the race in the final ballot of MPs this week.

There has been speculation that Mr Cleverly, who had topped a ballot a day before he was eliminated, was the victim of coordinated vote-sharing that backfired.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that because it is a secret ballot, he cannot be certain what happened.

“But it does seem to me that at the very least, a number of individual MPs decided that they would play games, that they would try and engineer the final two that they wanted to see, rather than focusing on the person that they actually wanted ultimately to be leader.

“And I think it does expose questions about whether that is the right electoral process for the party in the future.”

The new leader will be announced on November 2 after a ballot of the whole party membership is held.