"The unwanted guest at the wedding. The man who turns up at every fringe. Flutters his eyelids and says, Who me? As leader? The thought never crossed my mind.' Sadly for Kemi Badenoch, she can't just starve Jenrick out. Pretend he doesn't exist. As Honest Bob is her shadow justice secretary, she was rather obliged to give him a slot on the main stage. This was the moment he had"
"The hall was roughly two-thirds full, half of them still awake. Which, by the standards of this conference, just about counts as a full house. Maximum engagement. There were people here who were alive after all. Not everyone had come together merely as a communal act of self-annihilation. Honest Bob appeared from behind a screen and the front few rows all stood up to give him an ovation. He raised his arms aloft in triumph. This was going to be his"
Robert Jenrick, nicknamed Honest Bob, behaved as an unwelcome, attention-seeking presence at the Conservative conference, appearing on the main stage as shadow justice secretary. He used the platform to signal tolerance for exclusionary, racially charged remarks about concentrations of Black people. The audience demonstrated notable engagement, with many delegates already sympathetic to Reform-style views and frustrated by milder conservatism. The speech energized delegates who preferred a more extreme approach, effectively granting tacit permission to embrace the party's worst tendencies and shifting the atmosphere toward more divisive politics.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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