Robert Jenrick (Image: Getty)
Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick today declares himself the heir to with a vow to win back the “Red Wall” and kick out of Downing Street at the next election.
Mr Jenrick, the bookies’ favourite in the race to become Tory leader, pledged to make the Conservative Party “a truly national party” which takes back seats in the north and Midlands. He declared: “I am determined to win back the Red Wall and I believe we can.”
And his campaign received a major boost on the eve of a party conference that will be dominated by the leadership contest, as he was backed by ten former Red Wall MPs who lost their seats to Labour this year.
In a joint letter, the former MPs said “need to demonstrate that we are the Party best placed to deal with concerns about public services: hospitals, schools, council services, the state of our Town Centres.”
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Pointing out that Mr Jenrick is the only one of the four leadership candidates to represent a seat outside the south east, they said: “Robert instinctively gets this.”
The signatories represent seats that voted Conservative for the first time in decades, or ever, in the 2019 general election under ’s leadership, including Dudley North, Bassetlaw, Burnley and Leigh. The letter was also signed by Jill Mortimer, who won Hartlepool for the in a stunning by-election victory in 2021.
Mr Jenrick is best known for his tough approach to immigration after resigning as a Home Office Minister in 2023 and claiming the Government wasn’t doing enough to end small-boat crossings. But writing for the Sunday Express, he highlights his work as Local Government Secretary, saying he got homes built “by taking on the blockers” and provided cash to revitalise high streets.
Giving Mr Johnson the credit for attracting new supporters to the Tory Party, he said: “In Boris they saw a leader promising to upend the political status quo and bring opportunities across the country. It was a potent message that united millions of’ small c’ and delivered the Tory party an 80 seat majority.”
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And in an echo of a message repeated frequently by Mr Johnson, he said: “I believe more passionately than ever that talent is spread evenly in this country, but that opportunities are not.”
Mr Jenrick also reiterated his vow to take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights, which some see as essential in order to control immigration, and to impose a cap of “tens of thousands” on the numbers coming into the country.
He said: “I know that if we truly change as a party and unite around the serious answers to the big challenges facing the country, we can consign this disastrous Labour Government to one term.”
The Conservative conference in Birmingham will see Mr Jenrick take part in a question and answer session with activists and deliver a speech, along with rival candidates Kemi Badenoch, the Shadow Local Government Secretary, , the Shadow Home Secretary, and former Security Minister Tom Tugendhat.
The candidates are also due to take place in a series of fringe events, starting tomorrow when Mr Tugendhat appears at a reception organised by website Conservative Home and Mr Jenrick will be interviewed by the director of think tank the Centre for Policy Studies.