And yet according to the article the maximum sentence for the criminal offence which Kemi Badenoch committed is two years imprisonment whilst I don't believe a custodial sentence is available for Rachel Reeve's crime.
Strange that among the various recent dodgy arrangements the Press have stopped talking about Farages house purchase
her inability to accept she made a mistake is quite something
https://bsky.app/profile/psurridge.bsky.social/post/3m6ouqiai222g
I would just like to extend a warm welcome to the continuing implosion of the tory party, 2026 edition. Long may it continue
Also: roffle
I would just like to extend a warm welcome to the continuing implosion of the tory party, 2026 edition. Long may it continue
Whilst I wholeheartedly agree, it should be observed that implosion of Tory seems to = growth of Reform. So be careful what you wish for.
well, I also wish for everyone in the reform party, and all its supporters and voters, to each fall down an open manhole into a sewer, if that's any help?
genuine quiestion, at what point does the Tory party ceased to exist and all RW voters just flip to Refuk?
As much as I enjoy watching Badenoch repeatedly trip over her own feet I reckon she deserves credit for this one as by stealing Honest Bob's thunder it prevents us having to watch that worm gurning next to the man frog in a press conference, looking all pleased with himself.
genuine quiestion, at what point does the Tory party ceased to exist and all RW voters just flip to Refuk?
Looking at the polls reform have seen a recent dip and the Tories have been the main one to benefit. These defections have shown Reform as the Tory reject party (which is a pretty low place to be). Small numbers though, so not exactly emphatic
Ill bet Jenrick is genuinely seething
I wonder what its like being a defector and having to see your former colleagues in parliament
and yep hes defected to reform,
As much as I enjoy watching Badenoch repeatedly trip over her own feet I reckon she deserves credit for this one as by stealing Honest Bob's thunder it prevents us having to watch that worm gurning next to the man frog in a press conference, looking all pleased with himself.
Unfortunately, nothing can prevent that. But even for a slimy little worm like him, who always looks insufferably smug, he must know that the entire country is pissing themselves laughing at him, surely? Actually... that would require a level of self-awreness and he's up there with Liz Truss on that score
Nige doesn't give a toss, obviously. Its all just more attention for him and he'll cast Honest Bob aside without a second thought when it suits him
Its all just more attention for him and he'll cast Honest Bob aside without a second thought when it suits him
Speaking of which since reform seems to operate an one defecting mp in one mp quits in a huff which one of them is going?
They’re all such thoroughly unpleasant, not to mention self-absorbed people, as more of the Tory rejects crowd into the Reform tent, I can’t see it remaining harmonious for very long.
It’s so transparent that Honest Bob wants (and thinks he deserves) the top job, I can’t see him and the man-frogs marriage of convenience lasting very long. And only one person is going to come out on top there.
So, in answer to your question I reckon Honest Bob will be last in, first out @dissonance. He’ll be sitting as an independent in no time, which will supply us all with even more hilarity, I’m sure
Honest Bob was scathing about former colleagues Mel Stride and the Pritsik so his judgement can't be completely misplaced, unlike his morals and humanity.
Nige doesn't give a toss, obviously. Its all just more attention for him and he'll cast Honest Bob aside without a second thought when it suits him
I think Britain's most unlikely*(ed) aircrash survivor is probably pretty miffed for his largest scalp to have comprehensively ballsed up the whole great reveal to be honest. This was going to be Nige's day and basically its been Kemi's
'kin hilarious.
About time seat go back in the open market. If you assume voters voted for a party to represent them then that is no longer the case. They need the chance to correct that situation.
Not convinced by the story that Honest Bob accidentally left his resignation out to be found. Was he arrogant enough to think Kemi might beg him to stay?
I think Britain's most unlikely*(ed) aircrash survivor is probably pretty miffed for his largest scalp to have comprehensively ballsed up the whole great reveal to be honest. This was going to be Nige's day and basically its been Kemi's
'kin hilarious.
Is it?
This is (still) the state of UK politics? even in opposition they’re the same bunch of grasping self-serving ****s. Nothing much has changed since Boris was in post…
I don’t think this will move the needle for anyone, loyal Tories will just see another Reform/UKIP stage managed “defection”, The kippers will see another “scalp” claimed. Everyone else will see the Right infighting again. And everyone’s interpretation is basically right, I don’t think this episode will change anything for anyone, it reinforces all biases…
Not convinced by the story that Honest Bob accidentally left his resignation out to be found. Was he arrogant enough to think Kemi might beg him to stay?
That may well have been true. Shadow Justice secretary doesn't have the same ring to it as shadow Home secretary when one is launching a leadership coup....either way, stupidity or arrogance it means Jenrick is yesterdays news and that's the last we will hear of him. What a massive balls up yuk yuk yuk...
Regarding that photo up there 🖕🏼…
”There are approximately 1,010,300 words in the English language, but I could never string enough of them together to properly express how much I want to hit you both in the face with a chair.”
Weasles
Are tories allowed to call tory defectors to reform scabs? Can also apply to any defectors between parties.
I am fascinated by the continuing contamination of reform. It's like a host being overrun with some ghastly parasite and no one seems to be noticing, and it'll be too late to do anything about. Reform destroyed the Tories who destroyed reform in some reverse entryism death spiral.
It's utterly bizarre to see.
Surely it makes room for a Tory revival under a leader who isn't utterly insane.
Surely it makes room for a Tory revival under a leader who isn't utterly insane.
Ian Dunt made that point today. This would be the perfect opportunity for the Tories to get rid of their nutters and move towards the centre ground. Unfortunately they can’t because their leader is one of the nutters and isn’t very bright
it makes room for a Tory revival under a leader who isn't utterly insane
There's a bloke who lives in a camper van on the shores of Loch Ness waiting for a sighting of the monster; I'd bet on him finding that first
Personally I'm waiting for a member of the labour right to defect to the Tories and start a leadership challenge.
That would be proper ballsy, and also proper funny.
Although frankly it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest anymore
that Ian dunt piece is spot on
i just saw this video - look at Jenrick's face
This morning he woke up with a good chance of being leader of the conservative party after the locals
He goes to bed tonight knowing he is nigel farages bitch
https://bsky.app/profile/adamjschwarz.bsky.social/post/3mci5m4qocc2g
I don’t actually think Honest Bob is bright enough to realise just how utterly ****ed he now is.
He just pulled the pin out and threw a hand grenade into his own career (such as it is/was).
My money is on him falling out with the Führer big time and be sitting lonely and friendless as an independent within a matter of months
Is the right honourable member for Newark the only one to have a constituency that is an anagram of his personality?
I don’t actually think Honest Bob is bright enough to realise just how utterly ****ed he now is.
He just pulled the pin out and threw a hand grenade into his own career (such as it is/was).
My money is on him falling out with the Führer big time and be sitting lonely and friendless as an independent within a matter of months
1. Which of the above statements is correct? (You may select more than one)
😄
Enjoyable read. Begrudging respect for Badenoch for squarely booting him in the nuts.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/15/how-robert-jenrick-was-ejected-before-he-defected
it makes room for a Tory revival under a leader who isn't utterly insane.
It should do but they may well nuke the opportunity.
Who was the last Tory leader that wasn't insane? Theresa May? John Major? I didn't agree with their politics but they weren't moonhowlers.
The Tories getting their act together, slightly, is good news imo.
Splits the hard right vote hopefully...
Kemi Badenoch has played a blinder with the rubbish hand she was dealt by Jenrick. She's managed to come across as principled and loyal, the complete opposite of Badboy Bob.
As above, this is a great thing because it'll split the hard right vote, not at the May elections, where Reform will clean up because people know who runs local govt is not so important, but in a couple of years when a GE comes round again.
The Tories should be praying that Starmer moves left from his centre right position to split the progressive vote with the Greens. He won't, he's a boneheaded technocrat who believes he has a right to rule, not unlike the Eton schoolboys.
it'll split the hard right vote
I keep seeing this written, but do people really mean the “Hard Right” or just the “Right” (of centre)? Because that’s more where Tories would probably prefer to see themselves.
The gamble Nige is taking with the likes of Mad Nad, Fingers Zahawi and Honest Bob is that they’re more familiar faces to the Tory base and that somehow by welcoming the sort of gits Boris was happy to surround himself with, that will bait more “traditional” Tories over with misty-eyed memories of the fluffy haired one’s stable and reassuring stint…
Coming into this for the first time, she was in Scotland yesterday, which made the local news. Surprisingly, she sounded quite sane. But then, so did Jenrick when he was listing this Countries woes. But neither have much idea of how to fix it, just like the last 20 years, they will fix it, because the other side are useless, but no real plan on how to do it. Much like Labour are now. Yes, I’m cynical with pretty much all Politicians.
Who was the last Tory leader that wasn't insane? Theresa May? John Major? I didn't agree with their politics but they weren't moonhowlers.
May wasn't batshit - in fact IMO at another time could have been a decent leader
but do people really mean the “Hard Right” or just the “Right” (of centre)
Reform are far right to the point of almost being neo nazis, tories are hard right, Labour are right of centre
it'll split the hard right vote
I keep seeing this written, but do people really mean the “Hard Right” or just the “Right” (of centre)? Because that’s more where Tories would probably prefer to see themselves.
Which Tories? Since 1979, the MPs and membership have tended to reject "wets" and prefer selecting leaders from the hard right. The exceptions here are Major, Cameron and May - to be fair, they were around for longer and were PMs longer than eg IDS or Howard. But the trend in the last decade has been to go kookier rather than more reasonable, and the membership has shrunk and got much older. The "Centrist" Tories like Rory Stewart and Tom Tugendhat (who have some fairly right wing views economically even if they're not socially offensive) have been driven out or sidelined.
It might be time to say that the Tories are a far right party now and not just a centre right wing party...certainly as long as Badenoch is its leader and Priti Patel and Robert Jenrick are considered Shadow Cabinet calibre...
Johnson purged anyone remotely sane from the party when he became leader. In doing so he effectively destroyed the Tory party.
The irony is that Johnson himself wasn’t that right wing. I don’t think he has any beliefs at all but it suited him to court then empower the nutjobs, through the medium of Brexit, to get him the leadership he’d always thought was his birthright.
Look at the cabinet he appointed…. complete far right headbangers (Cruella, Patel) or utter incompetents (Williamson, Hancock). Anyone moderate or with anything between their ears (Dominic Grieve, Rory Stewart) were forced out
Liz Truss as premier was the inevitable conclusion of Johnson’s venal and self-serving lunacy and Badanoch is just more of the same.
They're so blinded by right wing ideology, any semblance of pragmatism long gone, that trying to out-Reform Reform is the only thing they see.
Obviously they can never succeed at that, but Kemi is too dim to see that
I don’t think he has any beliefs at all
The perfect summary, if you add 'except himself'.
venal
Thought that was Hazel Weazel Blears Bleats being called out by Gwyneth Dunwoody
Kemi is too dim to see that
I don't think Badenoch has a lack of confidence! You don't wiggle your way to being an MP and leader of the Tories if you're the self-doubting, modest type.
Badenoch doesn't want to return the Tories to the centre right ground because she, too, is a headbanger. Where is the evidence that she is a centrist?
Time will tell if she develops enough confidence that she doesn't have to pander to the extreme right of the Tory party.
She IS the far right. She’s not like Johnson in just going along with this nonsense, she’s a true believer. There’s only one direction she’ll be taking the Tory party in. Further and further to the right.
As for confidence… I’ve never seen anyone so inexplicably overconfident, given her obviously limited abilities.
As is being demonstrated by the fact that since she scored a (relative) victory yesterday over Honest Bob, she clearly now sees herself as some sort of Machiavellian political genius.
In reality, she’s so dim she doesn’t even understand that while she stands grinning, looking ever-so-pleased with herself, all voters see is 2 Tory leadership rivals squabbling with each other. Again! Exactly the reason why they were wiped out at the last election.
The bonus about this is Farage, who’s normally pretty shrewd, is now fully involved with this Tory psychodrama too and it just makes Reform look even more like a retirement home for discredited, washed-up old conservatives
So who’s he going to have next? Cruella, Patel or Rees-Mogg? The man-frog is going to be able to reassemble Johnson’s entire old cabinet at this rate.
A sure-fire vote winner!
I think Badenoch did manage to pull out something of a win
farage wary of being seen as Conservatives 2.0 , put a hard deadline of 7th May locals after which he wouldn't accept any Tory defectors, Badenoch burnt honest Bob quite well by leaking heat s speech and sacking him amd his presser with fatage was quite humiliating
we will see if it holds true bit i think she may have warded off any more defections for now...
That depends how twitchy Tory MPs are getting at the moment. A very smart move by Nige to put a time limit on their potential treachery. Given how self-serving they all are, nothing but self-interest will be entering the equation
Right on cue from Marina Hyde
It might be time to say that the Tories are a far right party now and not just a centre right wing party...certainly as long as Badenoch is its leader and Priti Patel and Robert Jenrick are considered Shadow Cabinet calibre...
My question was more about how Tory voters/members see themselves (I’m not one, and never could be), I just don’t buy the idea that everyone that votes Tory is a closet fascist, there’s a spectrum.
Obviously RUK is a hard right party, but do voters and members of the Conservative Party actually consider theirs to be a Hard right party (irrespective of the current parliamentary leader) or a “centre right” party, yes currently captured by hard right populists, who now seem intent on one by one defecting to a newer, nastier vehicle that better suits their ambitions.
Like I said splitting the right, the full blown nutters and biggest grifters can all self-purge themselves out of the Tory party, leaving behind a more moderate (smaller) party, perhaps able to come back towards the middle ground (after a prolonged period of rehabilitation?).
As I said before this whole episode doesn’t really move the needle for anyone, Tory infighting and power struggles are just their default behaviour. RUK like making a headline, but the “strategy” beyond generating headlines is at best opaque. Nige is filling his gang with the dregs of the Johnson -> Sunak era, does he really think the country is getting all misty-eyed for that period?
It might be time to say that the Tories are a far right party now and not just a centre right wing party...certainly as long as Badenoch is its leader and Priti Patel and Robert Jenrick are considered Shadow Cabinet calibre...
My question was more about how Tory voters/members see themselves...do voters and members of the Conservative Party actually consider theirs to be a Hard right party (irrespective of the current parliamentary leader) or a “centre right” party, yes currently captured by hard right populists
You are mixing two concepts: how Tories see themselves and what the Tory party is. I have no idea how Tories see themselves. As for whether party members and the Tory party are hard right: the best evidence is the leaders they keep choosing!
most political parties the membership is more radical than the voters.
Hence the tories keep choosing leaders that are well to the right of the electorate
Mrs Kilo would be an “old school” tory, centre of party. She is not a fan of their present trajectory and loathed Johnson with considerable ferocity. She seems to regard them as a busted flush at present and is not in any way a reform fan - she is quite anti-Brexit and sees Farage as just a chancer surrounded by grifters and the mentally unstable. She also says the Starmer is a disappointment, she was expecting greater change from the tory mismanagement. Iirc she voted Lib Dem at the last GE - our constituency flipped to lib dem from tory. Whether she’ll stay with them I don’t know.
Mrs Kilo would be an “old school” tory, centre of party
There's a lot of people like that, who have largely been abandoned by their party. I guess Labour is too right wing for them so that leaves the Lib Dems.
andrew rossindale has defected to reform
https://bsky.app/profile/lewisgoodall.com/post/3mcpz3jz6xk2r
The stealth takeover of Reform UK by the Tories continues!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98jn1wywdyo
Do we basically have 2 Tory parties by now, existing in the same space?
You know where that sentence leads. 😉
Again, further proof that by brain is in a jar and you lot and this 'world' are just in a glitching sim run by aliens that subbed the IT out to AG4S.
Alien G4S.
Oh dear, Badenoch could start a fight in an empty room
Ed balls took her to pieces this morning on her student loan plan, she tried to brazenly BS it out, but Martin Lewis got so angry with her he had to come over and explain it would work
https://bsky.app/profile/adambienkov.bsky.social/post/3mfjcwuktss2n
The arrogance of her, to interrupt Martin while he's speaking then complain about him talking over her, then to do it again when he replies.
Duplipost.