Traitors? Or Faithfuls to the cause?

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child

Alas, poor Jenrick. I knew him; a fellow who likes the spotlight. Having been bested by Kemi Badenoch in the race for leadership of the Conservative Party – doing rather better than many predicted – Robert Jenrick MP was probably hoping that his ‘big news’ defection to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party would shoot him back up to the top of the news agenda. Though, in my opinion, Kemi Badenoch won the PR war, by sacking him so publicly and decisively when a copy of his resignation speech was left on the photo-copier…..by mistake. Yeah, right.

For a fortnight, Jenrick, a reasonably-sized Conservative cheese, was Reform’s big coup. Then we had this afternoon’s news (Monday). Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman has jumped ship from true blue Tory to turquoise Reform, rather taking the wind out of Jenrick’s sails. On the news, Farage looked like the proverbial cat with its nose in the Elmlea. I suppose one could argue that former MP Nadim Zahawi, who slid across the divide before Jenrick, could be counted as a bigger prize. But weeks last for aeons in politics. He was Chancellor in another, bygone age, and besides, he’d been sacked for sloppy tax accounting.

I don’t doubt that there is heartfelt belief from all of them that it is absolutely the right thing to do. However, the big question I want to ask each of the Tory turncoats is this: prior to your defection did you ask your constituents what they thought you should do? Did you check with the people who voted you into power whether they were OK with you changing parties? It depends, I suppose, whether you believe that people generally vote for the political party that a candidate represents, or for the candidate themselves. Do people vote with their constituency heads, or their political hearts?

In Jenrick’s Newark constituency Reform were in 3^rd place in the 2024 General Election; Braverman beat them into 4^th place in her Fareham seat. Do all the Fareham voters who used the pencil-on-a-string to put their cross in the Conservative box agree with Braverman that Britain is “broken”, and that only Reform can mend it? Does every one of the 21,000 Conservative voters in Newark agree with Jenrick that a “new and exciting leader ” is required? Somehow, I suspect that the new and exciting leader he sees in his mind’s eye for the future is not Mr Farage, but a younger, sleeker, more Robert Jenrick-shaped specimen. Ditto Suella.

Another question: Should a mid-term switch of allegiances like this require some form of renewed consent from the people? If they’d all been run over by the Reform bus instead of hopping on it, we’d be ankle-deep in by-elections. Look at it from a business point of view. If a senior executive swans off to a competitor overnight, clutching their major client list, there are consequences of the ethical, contractual and even reputational kind. Gardening leave exists for a reason.

It has been said of Farage, not least by James Cleverly at the BMF Members Day Conference last September, that he and Reform have no-one with any real experience of government, or anyone in the fold who understands what it’s like to actually run a country. Or a county council – Kent, I’m looking at you. So, he’s doing what many companies trying to build credibility within a marketplace have done, he’s bringing in experience. He’s buying market share.

How well he manages that, I suppose, depends on your opinion of the people that jump on the Reform boat, one that already includes Nadine Dorris, Andrea Jenkins, and Lee Anderson. As a member of the Shadow Cabinet, Jenrick has some degree of credibility. Zahawi and Braverman, having both held one of the Great Offices of State, even more. But then both were sacked. Braverman twice.

No political party is ever 100% right, and sometimes it seems voters have to pick what they hope will be the least-dreadful option. Labour hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory, though the Lib Dems’ Ed Davey did prove quite useful at handing out bottled water in Tunbridge Wells.

Is Britain broken? Maybe. Maybe not. Whether you think it is depends, I suppose, on your own political persuasions.

We’re battered, we’re bruised, and we are certainly not at our best. There have been a great many things brought forth by this government, and the previous one, that have inflicted serious damage upon businesses and the wider economy. However, I’d like to think we’re not bowed. There are still companies operating across the world that will buy British products, because they’re British. There are still countries out there for whom that British stamp, that British standard, really matters.

And let’s face it, there are plenty of places around the world where things are a lot, lot worse. *Looks across the Pond. Shudders*