An expulsion, a smirking leader and now a defection: it's episode one, series one of the Farage/Jenrick show | Zoe Williams

"The best thing right now would be to read the turmoil in the Tory party as told by the spy novelist Len Deighton. He would give us more detail on Robert Jenrick's defection media-handling plan: a statement on what a future in Reform meant to him, how he'd wrestled with his decision to leave the Conservatives behind. Kemi Badenoch would discover it by a process of intricate deduction, rather than the more likely story that some mischief-maker leaked it to her."

"The trail of clues would be ever more ominous, as Jenrick skipped opportunities to show loyalty to his party leader, mysteriously didn't show for longstanding commitments. The betrayal would unfold slowly in scarce-to-be-believed fashion until, wham: someone saw his to-do list. Iron turquoise shirt. Call Sophy Ridge. Instead, Jenrick's ejection from his party is slightly spoiled, from a storytelling point of view, by the chaos of conjecture and semi-analysis. What happened this afternoon was beyond Deighton."

"For hours, Nigel Farage would confirm only that he'd had conversations with Jenrick, and stated categorically that he hadn't signed a deal with him. There were questions over whether Badenoch had successfully ruined Farage's Westminster press conference, planned for 4:30pm today, where he would purportedly reveal Jenrick as his latest defector. And even more about what it would mean for Jenrick's political ambitions, inside or outside the Tory party."

Robert Jenrick's possible move from the Conservative Party to Reform UK played out amid confusion, leaks and theatrical media manoeuvring. Kemi Badenoch dismissed Jenrick, generating questions about motive and timing and prompting speculation over whether she undermined Nigel Farage's planned press conference. Nigel Farage both denied an imminent deal and then publicly welcomed Jenrick, producing contradictory signals. The episode featured missed commitments, a revealed to-do list and intense conjecture about what a defection would mean for Jenrick's political ambitions and for dynamics between the Conservatives and Reform UK.

Read at www.theguardian.com