From 'fraud' to friend: Farage backtracks on Jenrick claims as he hails defector's 'genuine journey'

The Reform UK leader unveiled Mr Jenrick as the latest MP to be welcomed into his party just hours after his shock sacking by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch on Thursday.

The defection still took place despite Mr Farage previously branding Mr Jenrick a fraud last year.

In a tweet from August 2025, the Clacton-on-Sea MP said: "Jenrick is a fraud. I’ve alway thought so."

When asked about this by LBC's Deputy Political Editor Aggie Chambré during today's press conference, Mr Farage admitted he wasn't sure whether the then Tory frontbencher was genuine at the time.

"I wasn't sure that his conversion was genuine. I thought perhaps he was doing it for political advantage within the Conservative Party to become leader.

"I had my doubts, but I've begun to believe since the summer that actually this guy has been on a genuine journey [and] is viewing the country very differently."

Read more: Nigel Farage unveils sacked Tory defector Robert Jenrick as Reform's latest MP - hours after he was brutally axed by Kemi Badenoch

Read more: LIVE: Farage welcomes Jenrick to Reform as he thanks Badenoch for 'late Christmas'

He added: "As I said earlier, the thing that really swung it for me is he was the only principled resignation from the last government.

"And when people who fought very, very hard to get into parliament, to rise up the ladder into ministerial position, senior ministerial position, for people to resign on points of principle.

"There are very, very few people in public life who do that these days, and that's what convinced me that this guy was in the same camp that I'm in.”

During the press conference, Aggie also pressed Mr Jenrick on whether this has hamstrung his dream of becoming a party leader.

He replied: “Look, nobody leaves a party which they're the bookies favourite to be leader out of ambition, you do this out of conviction. I've done this today because I'm convinced it's the right thing to do for my constituents and for the country. That's it.”

Mr Jenrick was sacked today as Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the public was tired of "political psychodrama."

Mr Jenrick told reporters on Thursday: "Those that came before us built a great country, the greatest country in the world. But we are set to lose it.

"Both Labour and the Conservatives broke Britain, and both are now dominated by those without the competence or the backbone needed to fix it."

Launching a scathing attack on his former party, Mr Jenrick said the Conservatives "don’t have the stomach for the radical change this country needs," and claimed they "are not sorry" about mistakes previously made in Government.

He said: "I can’t kid myself any more. The 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.

"After the last general election, I made an argument to the Conservative Party, and in some respects, haven’t stopped making that argument that it failed the country, that it needed to be painfully honest about the mistakes that it had made."Over time, I’ve come to the painful conclusion to me, that the Conservative Party is not sorry, or at least many in Westminster are not sorry, can’t change and won’t change."

Throwing his support behind his new boss, Mr Jenrick added: "Nigel Farage has stood – consistently, and often alone – for what's needed.

"I don't agree with everything he's ever said and he definitely won't have agreed with everything I've ever said.

"But in retrospect, I see that in this period when the two main parties were failing Britain, Nigel was all too often a lone voice of common sense."