Braverman turns on Jenrick

All is not well in the Conservative party. Tory leadership hopeful Suella Braverman has turned on fellow MP Robert Jenrick in a scathing attack on her rival. The former home secretary previously worked closely with the ex-minister while their party was in government – but was this week keen to draw up dividing lines between the pair at Washington’s National Conservatism conference.

Braverman blasted her former colleague for coming ‘from the Left of the party’, slamming Jenrick as a Remainer who ‘was a big, kind of centrist, Rishi supporter’. Burn…

The ex-home secretary went on:

I remember talking to him about leaving the ECHR a year ago, and him looking horrified by that prospect. It’s really good that he’s moving in a different direction. Wasn’t the story that he was sent by Rishi to keep an eye on me in the Home Office?

Talk about shots fired. Jenrick left his immigration minister post in December last year because he believed his party’s Rwanda plan did not go far enough. Although Jenrick hasn’t officially declared he will stand for the leadership, his is one of many names being circulated. Braverman has so far positioned herself as the right-wing candidate, telling GB News that ‘we are facing an existential threat from Reform. We need to change ourselves to ensure that we neutralise that threat, that we bring those people back home.’

But she has already suffered a blow to her leadership bid after reports emerged on Monday that former backer Danny Kruger would support Robert Jenrick instead – with one Tory source describing her campaign in the Times as being, er, ‘dead before it even started’. Oh dear…

Braverman says that she expects leadership rivals to ‘conduct ourselves with an attitude of the amicable and friendly’. Perhaps the former home secretary might consider leading by example…