As she made her shock announcement that she had sacked Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch said she was “very sorry” to have had to fire her shadow justice secretary.
But few close to her will miss the man who has long been seen as a thorn in her side.
Their relationship has been fraught with tension since they battled it out in the contest to lead the Conservative Party, just 14 months ago.
Ms Badenoch emerged victorious in that race, albeit with a reasonably narrow 56 per cent of the vote among the Tory faithful.
Since then, she has faced constant speculation about Mr Jenrick’s ambitions, as she struggled to establish herself while the man she defeated hogged the headlines with attention-grabbing stunts and was the subject of rumours he was planning to oust her or defect to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
The Independent understands the two, both strong personalities, had it out in a conversation before Christmas.
Sources close to Ms Badenoch say that at that stage, Mr Jenrick denied he was defecting to Mr Farage’s party. However, as a result of that meeting, senior people around Ms Badenoch were convinced he was, at least, planning a bid for the Tory leadership.
Those close to Ms Badenoch say Mr Jenrick was fired on Thursday after they saw “totally irrefutable” evidence he was planning to defect to Reform UK. As well as reports that he was meeting with Reform and had dinner with Mr Farage last month, they also claim they had got hold of a copy of his resignation speech in the past 24 hours, which is why Ms Badenoch moved.
Their belief now is that he was working on two options – to replace her as leader or, failing that, to defect to Reform.
But his supporters claim the real reason he has been sacked was because they were plotting a leadership challenge against Ms Badenoch after the May elections, which are widely expected to be disastrous for the Tories.
The Independent had approached Ms Badenoch’s office this week after seeing evidence of a leadership push, and that Mr Jenrick’s allies were preparing the letters of no confidence needed to trigger a Tory leadership contest. One ally of Jenrick told the Independent: “This is just a move to take Robert out.”
That there has been little love lost between the two has been true for a long time.
In June, The Independent revealed that his videos – including an eye-catching stunt that saw him chase down and challenge fare dodgers on London trains – had angered other senior Tories, as the party desperately tried to raise the profile of a beleaguered Ms Badenoch.
That one clip, which came hot on the heels of others on a range of issues including bin collections in Birmingham, was watched more than 10 million times.
At the time, allies of Ms Badenoch played down the threat to her position, insisting she did not have time to micromanage members of her top team and that she wanted them to use their initiative to go out and sell the Tory message. But the problems for Ms Badenoch were plain to see, and not helped by Mr Jenrick waiting in the wings.
His weight loss since the leadership contest led to increased speculation over his ambitions, while there was talk that his formidable wife, Michal Berkner, a high-powered corporate lawyer, read online comments about him to him at home to motivate him.
Ms Badenoch stumbled through a dire conference season, which was notable for the lack of energy and enthusiasm from corporate sponsors or even Tory members.
Tory MPs also began to despair of their leader’s performances at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). Against a Labour party trailing Reform in the polls, she often struggled to land a blow. Her backbenchers began to complain to each other that her questions were often a week out of date, as if they had been written after the previous week’s PMQs, allowing Sir Keir off the hook.
In recent weeks, however, Ms Badenoch’s performances have visibly improved, and she has had a series of good weeks against the prime minister. She has set the political agenda on a number of key issues, such as her call for a social media ban for under-16s, leaving Labour scrambling to respond.
Still, there remained concern over Mr Jenrick’s ambitions and the growing number of Tory defections to Reform, with Mr Farage on Monday unveiling ex-Tory chancellor Nadhim Zahawi as his latest recruit.
But today’s announcement risks being a win not for Ms Badenoch, but for her greater rival, Nigel Farage. The Reform UK leader appears to have succeeded in destabilising the Tory party, without necessarily having to admit Mr Jenrick, a potential leadership contender, in whatever party he joins.
Whatever the eventual outcome, Ms Badenoch will, at least, be glad she no longer has to answer questions about Robert Jenrick’s plans.
