Robert Jenrick’s resignation shows the game is up for Rishi

He was one of Rishi Sunak’s closest allies, one of the three amigos – but Jenrick quitting over the prime minister’s policy to cut immigration shows a collapse of party discipline, writes John Rentoul

Robert Jenrick, who has quit as immigration minister, in Downing Street (AFP via Getty Images)

Once upon a time, a mere four years ago, Robert Jenrick was a rising star on the inside track. He and two other middle-ranking ministers, Rishi Sunak and Oliver Dowden, were the first from the loyalist heart of the party to come out in favour of Boris Johnson when Theresa May’s government collapsed.

The three of them wrote a joint article for The Times headlined “Only Boris Johnson can save us”. All three went on to be cabinet ministers in Johnson’s government and, when that collapsed, Sunak became prime minister and, after a short pause, Dowden became deputy prime minister. Jenrick on the other hand had lost his place in Johnson’s cabinet over a problem with a planning application for flats at Westferry next to Canary Wharf, and as a result had become semi-detached from the other two of the three amigos.

He was stuck as a minister of state, attending cabinet but not a full member, and apparently charged with being Sunak’s spy in Suella Braverman’s cab at the Home Office. He may have resented being seen as the prime minister’s creature in the Home Office, especially when he would not have been human if he did not think he could do Braverman’s job better than she did.