Robert Jenrick had been migration minister for just a few days in 2022 when he gave a broadcast interview that could easily have been given by a minister in the current government.
“Suella Braverman [the former home secretary] and her predecessor, Priti Patel, were procuring more hotels,” he told Sky News. “What I have done in my short tenure is ramp that up and procure even more. Because November, historically, has been one of the highest months of the year for migrants illegally crossing the Channel.”
He went on to add: “I would never demonise people coming to this country in pursuit of a better life. And I understand and appreciate our obligation to refugees.”
It was a very different Jenrick who showed up in Epping last weekend at the site of prolonged protests outside the Bell hotel, which houses asylum seekers.
“Great to be with peaceful, patriotic protesters in Epping today,” he posted on X. “People are right to be fed up of illegal migration. And the crime and billions being wasted because of it.”
Jenrick’s inflammatory visit to Epping, where he was pictured close to a well-known far-right activist, showed why he is – in some ways – one of the most effective members of the shadow cabinet, but also the political risks of his sometimes controversial public appearances.
Supporters argue that no one else in the shadow cabinet is so adept at seizing the political initiative.
They point to his much-discussed recent social media videos, including one of him accosting fare dodgers on the London underground, as evidence of his success. And they add his appearance in Epping, where not even the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has sought to go, shows he is one of a small number of Conservatives able to outmanoeuvre his populist rightwing opponents.
“It’s incredibly difficult for us to get attention right now,” said one Conservative MP. “If all of the shadow cabinet were doing what Jenrick is doing, that would be great.”
Another said: “There’s much noise around Reform right now. Any noise from a Tory perspective is good.”
Others, however, are accusing him of rank hypocrisy.
In an unusual personal attack on a Conservative politician, Reform published a series of X posts accusing him of having “boasted” about opening more asylum hotels while in government.
Meanwhile, several Conservatives say they are uneasy about Jenrick’s tactics and accuse him of being more interested in lining up a leadership bid than helping his party.
“It is hard to take him seriously,” said one Tory MP. “The reservation is that he’s not Nigel Farage, and he will never be Nigel Farage.”
Another said: “The challenge for leadership hopefuls like Jenrick is that he presided over an immigration policy that increased the use of hotels, which is why Reform are now focusing their attacks on him.
“We also have the likes of [fellow Conservative MPs] Danny Kruger, Nick Timothy and Katie Lam who advised successive prime ministers and home secretaries now behaving as though they are clean of the past and have the answers. It doesn’t fool anyone.”
Jenrick’s difficulty in being taken seriously as a rightwing agitator, after years in government as a supporter of Rishi Sunak, mirrors the wider challenge facing the party in shaking off the legacy of 14 years in power.
Record levels of legal migration, and tens of thousands of small boat crossings a year, have left the Conservatives as the least trusted party on immigration.
Many of the party’s own MPs are concerned about exactly this. A recent Conservative social media post criticising the “freebies and perks” given to asylum seekers arriving in the UK was met with scorn by many of its own MPs.
On a leaked Tory WhatsApp chat, MP Lewis Cocking said: “This makes us look silly as we gave them all this too, which is why we are in the mess we are in today.”
Rob Ford, professor of political science at Manchester University, said: “Going big on the issue makes sense on the surface in that salience of it is high and Labour’s poll figures are bad too.
“But it is and always has been Farage’s core issue. So their recent behaviour is very much ‘Nigel is right, don’t vote for him.’
“Jenrick showing up at that hotel may work as a campaign image for the coming Tory leadership contest but it also makes it more likely that whoever wins that contest takes over a ship headed rapidly to the seabed.”
Some say that by attacking asylum seekers so aggressively, the party risks emboldening the far right and undermining the entire idea of granting asylum. A recent study published in the British Journal of Political Science found attacks by mainstream politicians on migration were far more powerful in changing public attitudes towards migrants than ones from the hard-right.
The researchers found that “statements by mainstream politicians lead to more norm-erosion than similar statements by radical-right politicians”.
Those concerns are shared by some anti-racism campaigners. Lewis Nielsen, a spokesperson for Stand Up to Racism, recently said: “Jenrick is fanning the flames of the far right by chasing Reform UK votes. He’s giving confidence to known fascists.”
None of this troubles those close to Jenrick, however, who believe that even being pictured at the same rally as a former British National Party strategist can be turned to their advantage.
“At this stage in the game, controversy is good,” said one Jenrick ally. “Making controversy on a point where we are saying what the public want us to say is more than a net benefit – much more.”
