Robert Jenrick's speech on joining Reform
UK
It's time for the truth.
Britain is in decline.
We have been for decades.
From 1970 to 2007, real wages went up by one third every ten
years.
Since then, they've flatlined.
At the turn of the millennium, the average Brit was earning more
than twice as much as the average Pole.
By 2031, we're on track to be poorer.
Outside of London and the South East, our economy is closer to
Bulgaria's than Germany.
Today's 18 to 30 year olds are the first Britons to earn less
than their parents.
Houses cost more here than in any OECD country.
We have the highest energy prices in the developed world.
Our heavy industry has more than halved since 2003.
Our service sector is exposed to AI.
1 in 5 working-age Brits are now not working.
Our debt is the highest it's been since the '60s.
And our tax burden is the highest it's been since the '50s.
We're spending more on debt interest than on our defence and
schools combined.
In 2012, 1 in 20 people who went to A&E waited more than 4
hours. Now, it's 8 times that.
1 in 5 school kids are 'persistently absent.'
1 in 5 students earn less for having gone to university.
93% of crime is going unsolved.
The courts, backlogged. Prisons, overflowing.
Our army, the smallest it's been in 200 years.
193,000 have come on small boats since 2018.
Last year, one illegal migrant raped a 12-year-old girl in
Nuneaton.
Terrorists have broken into Britain on small boats.
And, we're living through the most profound change to our
population in our history.
Net migration, 100 times higher in the 25 years after 1997 than
the 25 before it.
1 in 5 in Britain today were not born here. Many not working or
doing low paid work.
Just 1 in 20 of 2022's migrants were 'net contributors.'
Countless communities, in less than 25 years, have become
unrecognisable. The police can't police some of our largest
cities.
My constituents in Newark feel this decline every day.
It's a great historic town. It's an honour to represent it.
Many are out the door at 6, 7am.
Grafting all week but finding nothing left over for something
nice with their kids on the weekend.
Their bills and taxes surging.
Their money taken – to fund hotels for those illegally in our
country.
Or the lifestyle of the guy on the street who everyone knows
could be working but isn't.
I challenge anyone to argue Britain is not completely broken.
Those that came before us built a great country.
We're set to lose it. We will if this Government gets
re-elected.
A suicidal energy policy.
Crushing workers to fund scroungers.
Unions running our public services.
Payouts to terrorists. Prosecutions for veterans.
900,000 migrants in their first year. 65,000 illegally.
Ending jury trials. Cancelling elections.
Giving away our territory and £35 billion for good measure.
They run Britain like they hate it.
But, whilst this Government's accelerating our decline.
They didn't begin it. We've had 20 to 30 years of it.
And why has it happened?
Because the two main parties are rotten. They're no longer fit
for purpose.
They both broke Britain. And neither can fix it.
It's a conclusion about the Conservative Party that it has pained
me to reach.
Because I've been a member since I was 16. Served it most my
adult life.
I have countless good friends in the party.
Not least my members in Newark. The most decent, patriotic people
I know.
And I respect – cherish – the party's contribution to Britain.
The party of Pitt, Peel, Churchill, Thatcher.
But our country is in a precarious, dangerous position.
And our first loyalty must be to our country.
Turning it around will require us all to speak the truth. And act
accordingly.
What's the truth?
Both Labour and the Conservatives broke Britain.
And both are now dominated by those without the competence or
backbone needed to fix it.
Both parties, if judged by their actions, are committed to a set
of ideas that have failed and are failing Britain.
Labour started mass migration.
But the Conservative Party ramped it up. After 2019, the
Conservatives left us almost without a border.
5 million came. Three quarters not to work.
When I was Minister for Immigration in late 2022, I fought for
colossal reductions with .
There were 23 people in Cabinet.
Just 1 or 2 others were with us.
Most of the party – ultimately – wanted what they viewed as cheap
labour.
It's the same on illegal migration.
Blair enshrined the ECHR in British law.
He put the so-called human rights of illegal migrants and
terrorists before our security.
But so did the last Conservative Government.
I will never forget attending a Cabinet meeting where a 'plan' to
stop the boats was signed off that everyone accepted – knew –
wasn't going to work.
Some even joked about it.
I resigned days later.
And it isn't just immigration.
In 2008, Miliband legislated that we put major cuts to our
emissions before us having cheap energy.
The Conservative Party didn't just keep and execute his plan. It
doubled down on it with the insane net zero.
And Ed's now gladly picked it back up.
I said immediately after the last election. The Conservative
Party failed in Government.
There is hardly a principle they didn't betray.
Low taxes? They were left at a 70 year high.
Sound money? The debt tripled.
Defence? Hollowed.
Work should pay? Welfare exploding.
Law and order? Prisons overflowing.
In betraying its principles, the Conservative Party betrayed
its voters and members.
And this didn't just happen. It wasn't bad luck. It's because,
over time, most of the party – in Westminster – lost its way.
The principles were betrayed because a critical mass don't
believe in them.
After the election, I hoped the Conservative Party would
change... reckon with our mistakes with humility... Repent.
I said this after the election. Fought for it. Hoped it would be
possible.
But over the last year, I've realised this was naive. It hasn't
happened.
Most of the Conservative Party in Westminster are in denial – or
being dishonest – about what the party's done.
At a recent Shadow Cabinet, a debate broke out. The question was
put the group: is Britain broken?
I said: it's broken.
Almost all said: it's not broken. And we were told that's the
party line.
A few had a third view. It is broken but we can't say so because
the Conservative Party broke it.
If they won't admit publicly to you - the people - what they
broke, how can you have any faith they will fix it ?
The Conservative Party in Westminster isn't sorry. Still doesn't
get it. And hasn't really changed.
Now, the people I'm about to mention are all decent people.
But I need to explain myself.
Look at the top table.
The Shadow Chancellor, , has rightly attacked Labour for hiking taxes to fund
more scrounging.
There's just one problem.
He was the Cabinet Minister who oversaw the explosion of the
welfare bill. And it was him that blocked the reforms needed.
, the Shadow Foreign Secretary,
created the migration system that enabled 5 million migrants to
come here.
The greatest failure of any British Government in the post-war
period.
When asked about this last year, she defended her actions.
She doesn't believe she did anything wrong.
I respect Kemi. But I can't trust the party on migration.
Just 2 current Conservative MP voted with me against the
fraudulent plan to stop the boats.
Last year, I said the rape gangs disgrace was in part because
people with 'medieval attitudes towards women' had been allowed
into our country.
Several Conservative MPs complained about me for speaking
out.
Over Christmas, I attacked Labour for bringing the anti-British,
antisemitic, terrorist sympathiser El Fattah here from Egypt.
Senior figures in the Conservative party were angry at me for
this because, and I quote, it "exposed the party to criticism for
having granted him citizenship in 2021."
The fact is the Tory Party is so compromised it cannot speak for
the country and oppose Labour's madness.
So yes, I'm glad she has made getting rid of the rule of European
judges Conservative Party policy.
But I know from the leadership campaign: at least two thirds of
Conservative MPs oppose this.
Over the last few weeks, in meetings and in calls, I told Kemi
and her team what I've told you today.
That the Conservative Party needed to change fundamentally -
starting by acknowledging the state of Britain and owning up to
the role we played in getting in there.
I respect Kemi – but on all these issues, we were in different
places.
Let me be clear: They doubled down.
I can't kid myself any more.
The party hasn't changed and it won't.
The bulk of the party don't get it. Don't have the stomach for
the radical change this country needs.
In opposition, it's easy to paper over these cracks.
But the divisions – the delusions – are still there.
And if we don't get the next Government right, Britain will
likely slip beyond the point of repair. Everything is on
this.
I can't – in good conscience – stick with a party that's failed
so badly. That isn't sorry and hasn't changed.
That I know in my heart won't – can't - deliver what's needed.
That's why I resolved to leave.
Because has stood – consistently, and
often alone – for what's needed.
Ending mass migration. Cheap energy. Cutting waste and taxes and
red tape.
I don't agree with everything he's ever said. And he definitely
won't have agreed with everything I've ever said.
But in retrospect, I see that in this period when the two main
parties were failing Britain, Nigel was all too often a lone
voice of common sense.
When the first boats started crossing, who was in the Channel
saying it was outrageous?
They laughed at him. They're not laughing now.
Nigel has stood for the real change we need for over a
decade.
If anyone puts party allegiance - personal ambition - to one
side, he is obviously the right person to lead the movement for
the change we need.
Recognising the situation the country is in, I reached out to
Nigel in September.
I could see then the Conservative Party wasn't changing.
Couldn't fix Britain.
I didn't know then I was going to defect. We didn't discuss that.
I just knew the responsible thing was to explore all options.
From the conversations we've had quietly since then – and what
Nigel, and Zia and Richard and Lee and Sarah and Danny have been
saying publicly, I am convinced that Nigel and Reform will
deliver the real change we need.
Nigel knows, Reform knows – the extraordinary challenges Britain
faces require a comprehensive plan to turn things around.
That'll be a major priority for this year.
As Nigel has said, so will building and recruiting the team
needed to execute it.
Yes, a few people from other parties who've realised those
parties have lost their way. Who unquestionably back all the real
change Reform will bring.
But far more importantly: people from outside politics.
People who've done great things in business. In our schools,
hospitals, prisons, armed forces.
People the two main parties have ignored and almost locked out of
politics.
For all these reasons, today, I am proud to join the more than
two hundred and seventy thousand people who are members of Reform
UK.
To back Nigel. Join this incredible movement.
A national movement that will pool Britain's talents, experience
and expertise – put previous differences to one side – and
deliver the real change we need.
Turn around our country.
At this hour, with Britain on the brink – in real danger – that
is what we must do.
If you agree with this – don't sit on the sidelines.
Britain is broken.
Britain needs Reform.
And Reform needs you.
