"Only last year, the Reform UK leader was describing him as a fraud and saying he was sceptical that Jenrick was genuine, branding him Robert the Generic, Robert the Remainer and Robert the I Don't Stand Particularly for Anything at all. There are people in politics who are there through conviction and there are people in politics who are there because they want to reach rank, position and all that comes with that, he said at the time."
"Now, the verdicts of some of Jenrick's Tory colleagues on his political behaviour are similarly damning and centre around his unbridled ambitions. One said Jenrick does not have a truly rightwing bone in his body but merely goes whichever way the political wind is blowing to serve his own career. Matthew Parris, the former Tory MP and current newspaper columnist, on Thursday declared: If you were to remove ambition from the core of Robert Jenrick, he would collapse like a boneless chicken."
"But Jenrick, 44, privately insists that his political journey is a serious one, caused by radicalisation while he was a Home Office minister. He may have started off backing the remain campaign, but by the time he was a minister in Suella Braverman's department he became frustrated by the party's failure to take action to meet its promises on bringing down migration levels."
Robert Jenrick underwent a political transformation from a David Cameron-supporting remainer to an anti-immigration rightwinger, prompting scepticism from figures such as Nigel Farage and Reform UK. Colleagues accuse him of pursuing ambition over conviction, describing him as insincere and politically opportunistic. Jenrick says radicalisation while a Home Office minister, including frustration with the party's failure to deliver lower migration, prompted his shift. He ordered children's murals at an asylum centre to be painted over to make the building less welcoming and developed a reputation for ruthlessness, supported by advisers prepared to practise political dark arts behind the scenes.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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