Kemi’s pre-emptive strike on Robert Jenrick - Parliament Matters podcast, Episode 125
16 Jan 2026
In a dramatic day at Westminster Kemi Badenoch sacked Robert Jenrick and suspended him from the Conservative Whip before his defection to Reform UK. We explore what it says about Conservative discipline, Reform’s recruitment drive, and whether others may follow. We then examine rows over the Hillsborough Law and proposed national security exemptions, plus procedural drama in the House of Lords over the Chagos deal. Bob Blackman MP also joins us to discuss Backbench Business Committee reforms, before we assess whether the assisted dying bill is being talked out.
In a dramatic day at Westminster, Kemi Badenoch launched a pre-emptive strike against Robert Jenrick, sacking him from the Shadow Cabinet, suspending the Conservative Party whip, and moving before his headline-grabbing jump to Reform UK. We unpack what the defection tells us about party discipline, Reform’s “fishing operation” for Tory MPs, and whether anyone else might follow.
We then turn to government difficulties over the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, better known as the Hillsborough Law. With its proposed “duty of candour” for public officials, campaigners fear national security carve-outs (especially around MI5/MI6 evidence) could fatally water it down, with MPs particularly from Merseyside and Manchester pushing back hard as the Bill heads toward key Commons stages.
In our interview, Backbench Business Committee chair Bob Blackman MP sets out his committee’s “manifesto” for Commons reform: spreading backbench time beyond Thursdays, fixing the committee’s stop-start elections, and even replacing the Private Members’ Bill lottery with a more rational selection process.
Finally, we assess whether the assisted dying bill is being talked out in the Lords, what rescue routes might exist - including invoking the Parliament Act - and we note the arrival of a new Lord Speaker, Lord Forsyth, as wider Lords reform looms.
Bob Blackman
Bob Blackman CBE MP
Bob Blackman has been the Conservative MP for Harrow East since 2010. He served for many years as a councillor on Brent Council and was a local member of the London Assembly. He succeeded Sir Graham Brady as chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbench MPs following the general election in 2024, when he was also elected unopposed as chair of the House of Commons Backbench Business Committee. He also chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on British Hindus, on Fire Safety and Rescue, on Homelessness, on Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services, on Israel, and on Smoking and Health. In 2023 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for political and public service.
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Intro: [00:00:00] You are listening to Parliament Matters, a Hansard Society production supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Learn more at hansardsociety.org.uk/pm.
Ruth Fox: Welcome to Parliament Matters, the podcast about the institution at the heart of our democracy, Parliament itself. I'm Ruth Fox.
Mark D'Arcy: And I'm Mark D'Arcy. And coming up this week.
Ruth Fox: A preemptive strike as the Conservative leader nukes Robert Jenrick before he can defect to Reform UK. What does it tell us about the state of politics now?
Mark D'Arcy: Is the bill to legalise assisted dying doomed to fail in May, and will there be any way to revive it?
Ruth Fox: And the Backbench Business Committee's manifesto for reforming the way the House of Commons works. We talk to its chairman, Bob Blackman MP.
Mark D'Arcy: But [00:01:00] first, Ruth, every now and then Westminster generates a totally unexpected moment of pure political drama. Think Michael Gove throwing over Boris Johnson and deciding to run for Prime Minister and leadership of the Conservative Party in his own right. That was 10 years ago. Well, 10 years on Kemi Badenoch stunned Westminster by putting out a tweet, a video in which she announced that Robert Jenrick had been caught attempting to do a really damaging defection from the Conservative Party to Reform UK while still sitting in her shadow cabinet and plotting to do the maximum damage to the party. Full transcript →
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