Robert Jenrick, the right-wing MP who desires to construct “a brand new Conservative Get together”, is inside a whisker of changing into Tory chief.
He has made bringing down immigration central to his marketing campaign to steer the social gathering and has mentioned Britain ought to depart the European Courtroom of Human Proper (ECHR).
Here’s what you should find out about Robert Jenrick.
Robert Jenrick served in Authorities underneath 4 prime ministers in 4 completely different roles.
The daddy-of-three, who grew up in Shropshire, is a skilled solicitor who labored in company legislation at main worldwide legislation corporations in London and Moscow.
He then turned his attentions to enterprise, working in senior industrial administration on the world-famous world artwork agency Christie’s.
Wolverhampton-born, Mr Jenrick entered the Commons as MP for Newark in Nottinghamshire in a 2014 by-election.
Theresa Might promoted him to a Treasury minister in January 2018.
Ms Might’s demise noticed him climb greater, with Boris Johnson selling him to secretary of state for housing, communities and native authorities when the previous premier took workplace in July 2019.
The arrival of Liz Truss in Quantity 10 noticed Mr Jenrick return to Authorities for a brief stint within the Division of Well being.
Then in October 2022, with Rishi Sunak taking the highest job, he was appointed immigration minister.
Robert Jenrick speaks throughout a information convention when he was housing secretary
Andrew Parsons / 10 Downing Road / through Reuters
Mr Jenrick’s time across the cupboard desk as housing minister resulted in controversy in 2021, when he was sacked after a string of high-profile and damaging accusations.
His departure adopted the illegal approval of a Tory donor’s housing growth and eyebrow-raising journeys throughout lockdown.
Boris Johnson caught by Mr Jenrick regardless of anger over his approval of media mogul Richard Desmond’s 1,500-home Westferry Printworks growth in east London.
The permission got here the day earlier than a brand new council group levy would have price Desmond’s firm an additional £40million.
Mr Jenrick later needed to quash his personal approval, conceding the choice was “illegal” as a result of “obvious bias”.
There was additionally criticism over his determination to journey 150 miles from his London property to his Herefordshire residence, after which journeying for greater than an hour to go to his dad and mom in Shropshire whereas the nation was in Covid lockdown.
The position additionally noticed him tackle one other thorny concern the place a misstep can draw the ire of the Tory backbenches – planning reform.
With controversies mounting, and his reputation fraying with Tory MPs who objected to what they feared could be an excessive amount of housebuilding within the flawed locations, a reshuffle noticed Mr Jenrick sacked.
He was a member of Boris Johnson’s cupboard
Aaron Chown / PA
What was Robert Jenrick’s ‘Islamophobia’ controversy?
Mr Jenrick, in August 2024, mentioned protesters shouting “Allahu Akbar” needs to be “instantly arrested”, resulting in Muslim politicians accusing the Conservative MP of “nasty divisive rhetoric” and “textbook Islamophobia”.
The Arabic phrase means God is nice.
Mr Jenrick was talking about claims that far-right riots over the summer season had been being handled extra harshly than different latest unrest, pointing to the policing of pro-Palestinian demonstrations within the capital.
“I’ve been very important of the police previously, significantly across the perspective of some police forces to the protests that we noticed since October 7,” he advised Sky Information.
“I assumed it was fairly flawed that any person might shout ‘Allahu Akbar’ on the streets of London and never be instantly arrested, mission genocidal chants on to Huge Ben and never be instantly arrested.
“That perspective is flawed and I’ll at all times name out the police for it.”
Ex Conservative peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi hit out at his remarks, saying: “On a regular basis earlier than we begin parliamentary enterprise within the Commons and Lords we are saying a prayer and reward God – we are saying our parliamentary model of Allah hu Akbars on the coronary heart of democracy – a course of Robert Jenrick is part of.
“This language from Jenrick is extra of his standard nasty divisive rhetoric – he’s such a software.”
Labour MP Naz Shah added: “That is full ignorance and textbook Islamophobia from Robert Jenrick. It actually equates each Muslim on the planet with extremism.”
The arrival of Liz Truss in Quantity 10 in September 2022 noticed Mr Jenrick return to Authorities for a brief stint within the Division of Well being.
Then in October, with Rishi Sunak taking the highest job after Truss’s brief and disastrous premiership, he was appointed immigration minister.
The position was by no means going to be a simple job, with many within the Tory social gathering and past calling for the Authorities to scale back the variety of folks crossing the English Channel in small boats whereas additionally decreasing authorized migration.
A dedication to “cease the boats” was one among Mr Sunak’s 5 pledges at first of his premiership, placing Mr Jenrick’s temporary proper on the high of the Authorities’s priorities.
However then in December, he resigned as immigration minster stating the Rwanda scheme didn’t go “far sufficient” and he had “sturdy disagreements with the route of the Authorities’s coverage on immigration”.
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