Robert Jenrick smiles as he is confronted over £1bn property approval for Tory donor Richard Desmond

Robert Jenrick smiled as he was confronted over his £1bn property approval for Tory donor Richard Desmond.

Appearing on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg show on Sunday (13 October), the former housing secretary was quizzed over his decision to unlawfully approve a billion-pound development of Mr Desmond’s.

Ms Kuenssberg asked: “Matthew, our viewer, wants to know, why did you rush through reversal of the planning decision regarding Richard Desmond’s project to save him tens of millions of pounds?”

The Conservative party leader hopeful said he was acting on his party’s 2019 election manifesto to increase homes.

Mr Jenrick added: “The developer in question asked me about it, I told him not to talk about it. I regret obviously that I was subject to the mischaracterisation as to what our motivation was, which was simply to get homes built.”