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Robert Jenrick would “poison” the Conservative Party and wants to go further to the right than Nigel Farage, an influential former Tory MP claimed.
In a damning assessment of the former immigration minister, Matthew Parris dubbed him a “slick, smooth-tongued salesman with all the attributes of a crowd-pleaser, except the ability to please a crowd”.
He attacked Mr Jenrick as a political chameleon, having moved from being a “former Cameron Remainer” to someone promising to “out-Farage Farage”.
He asked: “Which is the real Jenrick: Robert the hard-grafting functionary and one-nation pragmatist we saw in a previous incarnation? Or Rob the Reform-adjacent head-banger, throwing out chunks of stinking raw meat to the Tory right, like his pledge to take Britain headlong out of the European Convention on Human Rights: a folly that would threaten Northern Ireland’s Good Friday agreement?”
And, throwing his weight behind Kemi Badenoch in the race to succeed Rishi Sunak, Mr Parris said the shadow business secretary has “thrilling philosophical courage”.
Mr Parris was the Conservative MP for West Derbyshire from 1979 to 1986. He remains an influential figure in the party, writing regular columns for The Times and The Spectator.
Writing in The Times on Monday, Mr Parris attacked Mr Jenrick’s record as immigration minister, claiming he quit in protest at the Rwanda policy as “an act of treachery inexplicable except as a naked move to distance himself from a beleaguered leader, positioning to succeed him”.
He also said Mr Jenrick’s calls throughout the contest for unity in the party fly in the face of his requirement that, as leader, his entire shadow cabinet sign up to the policy of quitting the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
“Venomous yet at the same time colourless, this man’s craving for office at all costs would poison the Conservative Party’s bloodstream,” Mr Parris warned.
He added: “So it has to be Badenoch. I say that without reluctance, because in this age of frightened politicians I find her philosophical courage thrilling.”
And he called for Ms Badenoch to turn to James Cleverly, ousted from the contest by MPs last week, for support: “Cleverly and Badenoch should campaign as a team. He conciliatory, she combative; he cautious, she bold … yin and yang do spring to mind.”
The intervention comes after Britain’s top pollster Professor Sir John Curtice warned neither Ms Badenoch nor Mr Jenrick has what it takes to bring the Conservatives back to power.
The polling guru said: “Despite their ideological stance, neither Ms Badenoch nor Mr Jenrick is necessarily well set to heal the electoral divide on the right.”
Writing exclusively for The Independent, Sir John said neither candidate has “an adequate understanding of why their party suffered its worst ever electoral result in July”, meaning they are unlikely to “take the steps needed for their party to regain voters’ trust”.
The dumping of Mr Cleverly from the contest raised the prospect of the Conservatives lurching to the right in opposition under Mr Jenrick, who has focused heavily on immigration, or Ms Badenoch, notorious for her involvement in culture war issues.
Both MPs have been making their pitches to members ahead of voting on 31 October. The leader will be announced on 2 November, ending a race that will have lasted more than 100 days.
In an offer to the right of the party, Mr Jenrick promised over the weekend to install Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg as party chairman in one of his first acts if he wins the contest.
