Robert Jenrick is the Reform UK MP for Newark, having first been elected to parliament at a by-election on 5 June 2014.

In the 2024 general election, Jenrick (standing as a Conservative candidate) received 20,968 votes, representing 39.2% of the vote share. The Labour candidate, Saj Ahmad, came second with 17,396 votes (32.5%), while the Reform UK candidate, Robert Palmer, secured 8,280 votes (15.5%). Jenrick was duly elected with a majority of 3,572.  

Robert Jenrick and Reform UK

Jenrick defected to Reform UK from the Conservative Party on 15 January 2026. His defection came after the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, said she had “clear, irrefutable evidence” of her shadow justice secretary’s plan to switch parties. Later that day, Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, unveiled Jenrick as his latest MP.

In a hastily arranged press conference, Jenrick said most Tory MPs were “in denial” or “being dishonest” about what successive Conservative governments had done to Britain.

He stated: “I can’t kid myself anymore. The [Conservative] Party hasn’t changed, and it won’t. The bulk of the party don’t get it. Don’t have the stomach for the radical change this country needs.”

In February 2026, Farage unveiled his Reform UK frontbench or “shadow cabinet”. Jenrick was styled as Reform’s “shadow chancellor” or Treasury spokesperson.

At the time, Farage stated: “With Labour’s growing instability, and Keir Starmer’s leadership on the verge of collapse, it is vital we prepare seriously for government.

“I am bringing together a strong, disciplined and experienced team ready to rebuild Britain. The British people deserve a real alternative. Today we are demonstrating that Reform UK is ready to provide it.”

Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch

Jenrick served as shadow justice secretary from November 2024 to January 2026 on Badenoch’s Conservative frontbench. His appointment followed Badenoch’s victory in the 2024 Conservative leadership contest.

Jenrick placed second in the 2024 Conservative leadership election. During the campaign, he won the support of leading figures on the Conservative right, notably John Hayes and Danny Kruger.

In the first MP ballot on 4 September 2024, Jenrick secured 28 votes – topping the poll. He was among the final four candidates, including Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat, who toured Tory conference in 2024 canvassing support. At the time, Jenrick came in for criticism after claiming that UK special forces “kill rather than capture terrorists” because of fears that European laws would free any detained assailants.

Each candidate was given the opportunity to address Conservative activists from the conference main stage for 20 minutes. In his contribution, Jenrick repeated his call for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to “secure our borders” and promised a freeze in net migration.

In the final head-to-head vote, Badenoch won a clear majority of the Tory membership, securing 53,806 votes (56.5%) compared to Jenrick’s 41,388 votes (43.5%). In her victory speech, Badenoch said it was “the most enormous honour to be elected” to the role leading the “party that has given me so much.” She paid tribute to Jenrick, who she said had run a “great campaign”.

In January 2025, Jenrick attracted criticism for comments suggesting mass migration had imported people from “alien cultures” with “medieval attitudes towards women”.

In May 2025, Jenrick released a viral social media video which depicted him stopping fare-dodgers on London’s transport.

Robert Jenrick: Conservative MP and rise to prominence

Jenrick served in several ministerial roles during the Conservative Party’s tenure in government. He was minister for immigration (attending cabinet) from October 2022 to December 2023, minister for health and social care from September 2022 to October 2022, secretary of state for housing, communities and local government from July 2019 to September 2021, and exchequer secretary from January 2018 to July 2019.

Jenrick resigned as immigration minister on 6 December 2023 in protest over the government’s proposed Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill. This legislation was introduced after the supreme court delivered a unanimous ruling finding that the government’s Rwanda deportations scheme was unlawful.

Jenrick argued that the legislation did not go far enough. In his resignation letter, he wrote that the bill was “a triumph of hope over experience” and did not go far enough to disapply international law and end the “merry-go-round of legal challenges.”

He wrote: “A bill of the kind you are proposing is a triumph of hope over experience.

“The stakes for the country are too high for us not to pursue the stronger protections required to end the merry-go-round of legal challenges which risk paralysing the scheme and negating its intended deterrent.”

In January 2024, Jenrick proposed amendments to the Rwanda bill, seeking to strengthen the proposed legislation by limiting the ability of individual asylum seekers to prevent their deportation. During the bill’s committee stage, Jenrick described the government’s approach as “pulling the pin out of a grenade but not being prepared to throw it”.

He stated: “We have kicked the can down the road and now there is no more road—at the end of the road there is a precipice. We are moving forward with a scheme, but we do not know how to implement it.”

The bill later passed its third reading in the commons on 17 January 2024, by 320 votes to 276. Only 11 Conservative MPs, including Jenrick, voted against the legislation.

Jenrick’s first cabinet appointment as secretary of state for housing, communities and local government in 2019 came after he supported Boris Johnson’s candidacy in the leadership contest of the same year. During that campaign, he was one-third of a triumvirate of Conservative MPs, alongside Oliver Dowden and Rishi Sunak, who penned a piece in the Times backing Johnson as the next Conservative leader and prime minister. These MPs, considered to be rising stars in the party, described Johnson as the answer to the “existential threat” facing the Conservative Party.

As housing secretary, Jenrick faced controversy over his approval of a £1 billion luxury housing development in Westferry, East London, proposed by Conservative donor Richard Desmond. Jenrick approved the scheme against the recommendation of a planning inspector, shortly before new council infrastructure charges would have cost the developer significantly more. Following legal action by Tower Hamlets Council, Jenrick accepted his original decision was unlawful “by reason of apparent bias” and quashed it, though he denied any actual bias.

During the pandemic, Jenrick faced criticism for travelling 150 miles from his London property to his home in Herefordshire, and then visiting his parents in Shropshire during the first national lockdown in April 2020. He stated the purpose was to deliver food and medicine to his isolating parents, and Downing Street stated he had complied with social distancing rules.  

At the time, Jenrick posted to social media: “For clarity – my parents asked me to deliver some essentials – including medicines.

“They are both self-isolating due to age and my father’s medical condition and I respected social distancing rules.”

In June 2022, Jenrick publicly declared their loyalty to the prime minister, Boris Johnson, ahead of a Conservative “no-confidence” in his leadership. The vote was triggered by discontent within the parliamentary party following the “partygate” scandal and the publication of the Sue Gray report. While the prime minister ultimately won the vote, the scale of the rebellion against him, with 148 of his own MPs voting to remove him, severely weakened his authority and presaged his resignation the following month.

At the time, Jenrick stated: “I supported Boris Johnson in 2019 and will vote for him to continue as PM tonight.

“The full attention of the party needs to be on growing the economy, delivering on our promise to level-up and playing the leading role in Europe’s defence. That’s how we win the next election.”

Following his election in the 2014 Newark by-election, Jenrick served as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to Esther McVey as employment minister (2015), Michael Gove and Liz Truss as justice secretaries (2015-2017) and Amber Rudd as home secretary (2017).

Jenrick served as a member of the House of Commons health and social care committee from July 2014 to March 2015 and the public accounts committee from February 2018 to November 2019.

Jenrick delivered his maiden speech on 26 June 2014 during a debate on the First World War Centenary.

In it, he remarked: “In times of great change, a sense of anxiety can prevail, which brings me back to the subject of today’s debate, the importance of remembering our past and doing so in a manner that reflects and enriches our values.”  

He added: “I am also conscious of how this little corner of England can prosper on a wider, global stage. I join this House having spent the last four years managing a British business expanding by entering new markets, accepting wholeheartedly the challenge and reward of globalisation.”

Jenrick contested the Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency at the 2010 general election, placing second behind Labour incumbent Paul Farrelly.

Political Views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Tory leadership 2022 (I): Jenrick supported Rishi Sunak’s candidacy in the Conservative Party’s July-September 2022 leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Boris Johnson, following the mass exodus of more than 60 frontbenchers.

Sunak, the former chancellor, warned against “comforting fairytales” regarding unfunded tax cuts. Although he won every round of the parliamentary ballots, securing 137 votes in the final stage, Sunak was defeated by Liz Truss in the membership vote, finishing with 60,399 votes (42.6%).

Tory leadership 2022 (II): Jenrick again supported Sunak’s candidacy in the Conservative Party’s October 2022 leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Truss after just 45 days in office, following the financial and political tailspin triggered by her “mini-budget”.

Unlike the summer contest, this election featured an expedited process requiring each candidate to secure at least 100 nominations from MPs to proceed. Sunak, having emerged as the clear frontrunner, was declared leader of the Conservative Party unopposed on 24 October.

Tory leadership 2019: Jenrick supported Boris Johnson for the party’s leadership in 2019. The election was triggered by the resignation of Theresa May following her inability to secure a Brexit deal acceptable to the Conservative Party.

Johnson, the former foreign secretary and mayor of London, campaigned on the central pledge to “deliver Brexit” by 31 October 2019, “deal or no deal”. He thereby positioned himself as the candidate best-placed to break the parliamentary deadlock. Johnson secured 114 votes in the first parliamentary ballot, and reached 160 votes in the final MP round. In the subsequent ballot of the party membership, Johnson won a decisive victory with 92,153 votes (66.4%).

Tory leadership 2016: Jenrick supported Michael Gove during the party’s leadership election in July 2016. The contest was triggered by the resignation of David Cameron following the UK’s vote to leave the European Union.

Gove, then the justice secretary, had been expected to manage Boris Johnson’s campaign but made the surprise announcement that he would run for the leadership himself. Gove secured 48 votes in the first ballot, placing third, but his support fell to 46 votes in the second ballot on 7 July. As the candidate with the fewest votes in that round, Gove was eliminated from the contest.

Jenrick went on to support Theresa May’s candidacy. May, the then-home secretary, secured a commanding lead in the parliamentary stages, receiving 165 votes in the first ballot and 199 in the second. Following the withdrawal of her final rival, Andrea Leadsom, on 11 July, May was declared leader unopposed and was appointed prime minister two days later.

Brexit and Europe

Brexit referendum: Jenrick supported Remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum and therefore disagreed with a majority of his constituents, 55.7% of whom voted to Leave.

Article 50: In February 2017, Jenrick voted in favour of the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill. The legislation empowered the prime minister to notify the Council of the European Union of the UK’s intention to withdraw, formally triggering the process set out in Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. MPs supported the bill by 498 votes to 114 at second reading.

Customs union vote (2025): In December 2025, Jenrick voted against the UK-EU Customs Union (Duty to Negotiate) Bill. The bill, introduced under the ten-minute rule procedure by Liberal Democrat Europe spokesperson Al Pinkerton, sought to mandate the government to enter into negotiations with the European Union to establish a bespoke customs union.

Assisted dying

Jenrick voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

In a Daily Mail article, published in June 2025, Jenrick outlined his opposition to the bill.

He wrote: “The legislation lacks basic safeguards. It would allow patients with anorexia to end their life without telling their families. The representative bodies of Pathologists, Psychiatrists, and Palliative doctors all oppose it. Our courts are bound, under human rights challenges, to expand eligibility yet further.”

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Jenrick voted against a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Foreign policy and security

Trident renewal (2016): Jenrick voted in favour of a government motion calling for the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent system in July 2016. The motion, which was passed by 472 votes to 117, committed the UK to constructing a new fleet of submarines to carry the nation’s nuclear weapons.

Syria airstrikes (2015): Jenrick voted in favour of a government motion to extend UK airstrikes against Isis from Iraq into Syria in December 2015. The motion, which was passed by 397 votes to 223 after a 10-hour debate in the House of Commons, authorised the RAF to conduct strikes against Isis targets in Syria.

Sanctioned (Russia): In April 2022, Jenrick was among the group of MPs placed on a sanctions list by the Russian government. The measure barred them from entering Russia and was presented by Moscow as a retaliatory response to the UK’s stance on the invasion of Ukraine.

Before Politics

Born in Wolverhampton on 9 January 1982, Jenrick grew up in Shropshire and Herefordshire. He was educated at the independent Wolverhampton Grammar School. He read history at St John’s College, Cambridge, graduating with first-class honours in 2003.  

He was awarded a Thouron Fellowship to study political science at the University of Pennsylvania for a year from 2003 to 2004. He subsequently studied law, obtaining qualifications from the College of Law (2005) and BPP Law School (2006).  

Jenrick qualified as a solicitor in 2008 and practised corporate law in London and Moscow.

Immediately prior to entering parliament, Jenrick worked as a director at the auction house Christie’s.  

Personal Life

Jenrick is married to Michal Berkner, an Israeli-born corporate lawyer.

The couple have three daughters, whom they are raising in the Jewish faith. His wife is the grandchild of Holocaust survivors.  

Trivia

During his earlier political career, Jenrick was reportedly nicknamed “Robert Generic” by some colleagues. The sobriquet represented a reference to his dour political style.