Robert Jenrick has claimed he urged Kemi Badenoch to throw Liz Truss out of the Conservative Party “multiple times” before his dramatic defection to Reform UK.
The former minister has said the Tory leader’s refusal to banish Ms Truss is one of the reasons he eventually decided to defect to Nigel Farage’s party.
Mr Jenrick was sacked Conservative from the front bench last week, after Mrs Badenoch claimed he was “secretly plotting” a defection to Reform.
He has since launched a scathing attack on his former colleagues, saying the party had “betrayed its voters and members” and was “in denial – or being dishonest” about its record.
On Monday, he explained how the former prime minister’s continued Tory membership after her disastrous mini-Budget had made him question the party’s willingness to change.
He told Sky News: “If I’d been leader of the Conservative Party, and that’s obviously ancient history now, I would have chucked Liz Truss out of the party because the mini Budget was careless and cackhanded.
“It did cause, in the moment, real harm to people … people’s house sales fell through, they were worried about their mortgages, investments, their pensions. That’s wrong.
“That is not somebody who should be a member of your political party.”
He added: “And the point I was making is, has the Conservative Party changed? I don’t believe it has.
“If the party has really changed, why wouldn’t you kick Liz Truss out? You know, I’ve told Kemi to do that. She chose not to do it. And it speaks to a broader truth.”
Ms Truss, who lasted just seven weeks in office before she was ousted by her own MPs in 2022, has previously been forced to deny being the UK’s worst prime minister.
Under her leadership, the pound fell to a 37-year low as a result of her massive borrowing package to fund the biggest tax cuts for half a century.
Mr Jenrick also told Times Radio that Ms Badenoch was not prepared to acknowledge how broken Britain is.
“I don’t believe you can even begin to fix it unless you’re willing to own up, see what’s actually happening, recognise the scale of the challenge,” he said.
“It feels like Kemi and the Conservative Party have got their heads in the sand right now.”
Writing for The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, Ms Badenoch continued to insist Britain was still successful – an attempt to create a dividing line with Reform.
She said: “Ours is still one of the most successful, resilient and influential countries on Earth. A country that has reinvented itself repeatedly. A country whose people quietly get on with things while politicians argue.
“Telling them their country is finished does not empower the British people – it drags them down.”
