Badenoch claims ‘Britain is not broken’ in rebuke to Jenrick after Reform defection | EUROtoday

Kemi Badenoch has insisted that Britain is “not broken” and stays “one of the most successful countries on Earth” in a rebuke to Robert Jenrick after he defected to Reform UK.

The Tory chief hit again on the former shadow justice secretary after he described Britain as “broken” throughout a press convention alongside Nigel Farage final Thursday.

Speaking to reporters after his defection was introduced, Mr Jenrick blamed each the Conservatives and the Labour Party for Britain’s financial decline – and insisted solely Reform may repair it.

But in an article for The Daily TelegraphMs Badenoch tried to supply a extra optimistic message in regards to the UK’s future to voters.

She wrote: “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.”

She later added: “Yes, Britain’s problems are real, and in some cases getting worse. But Britain is not broken. We are a great country with deep reserves of strength, talent, and resilience.

“What has failed is a system that too often rewards process over outcomes and intervention over results. Labour’s answer to every problem is another consultation, another review, another layer of state control. That does not make people richer. It makes them poorer.”

Earlier this week, Mr Jenrick had claimed in an interview with the BBC that his defection was “uniting the right” and insisted he had put the nation earlier than his allegiance to the Conservative Party. He additionally denied that private ambition had performed a job in his defection to Reform.

Mr Jenrick’s sudden defection got here hours after Ms Badenoch dismissed him as shadow justice secretary and suspended him from the Conservative Party, saying she had proof that he was plotting to leap ship to Reform.

Although each he and Mr Farage have mentioned his defection had not been deliberate for Thursday, Mr Jenrick advised the BBC he had “resolved” to go in the course of the Christmas break.

But the “final straw” had come throughout a shadow cupboard away day final week, during which the Newark MP mentioned he had argued with fellow frontbenchers about whether or not Britain was “broken”.

Mr Jenrick mentioned some colleagues had agreed with him that Britain was damaged, however argued they might not say so publicly as a result of the Conservatives have been accountable, having spent 14 years in authorities.

On a go to to Aberdeen on Friday, Ms Badenoch dominated out any pact with Reform forward of the following election.

“How do you do a deal with liars? How do you do a deal with people who have been saying things that were clearly not true, not just for months, but clearly for years?”

Labour chair Anna Turley additionally hit out at Mr Jenrick’s feedback, claiming he was “one of the arsonists who inflicted chaos and decline” on Britain whereas serving as a Tory minister below the earlier authorities.