Nigel Farage confirms former Conservative MP Robert Jenrick has joined Reform UK

Transcript

00:00I'm not for a moment going to tell you that I'd not been talking to a certain Robert Jenrick

00:05for some weeks, some months, as indeed I've been talking to many, many other senior conservative

00:15figures, and incidentally some Labour ones as well. There'll be a Labour defection next week

00:20which you'll all be invited to. But I have been talking to some very senior conservatives

00:25and the reason is very simple. They all know that after May 7th, despite whatever attempt

00:32there may be at the moment, and yes, of course, Kemi's doing better up against Keir Starmer

00:37at PMQs and talk of a Kemi bounce and all the rest of it, but the realists know that after

00:43May 7th, the Conservative Party will cease to be a national political party. That is just

00:49how serious the situation is. And there are many who genuinely want to realign the sensible

00:57centre-right in this country, and they increasingly believe the only way to do that is for reform

01:04to become the dominant party. Now, you may argue already we're the dominant party in the polls.

01:10So, yes, I had been talking to Robert Jenrick. I had been talking to many other people as well.

01:17You saw one earlier this week, Nadim Zahawi, a former chairman and indeed Chancellor of the Exchequer.

01:24But let me make it absolutely clear that when it leaked out of Robert Jenrick's office that

01:32he'd been preparing some notes and thoughts about what he would do, what he would say,

01:37how he would play it when he came, he wasn't going to join at 4.30 today. Now, I'm sorry,

01:42Kemi, you've jumped the gun. You've added up two and two and made five. He wasn't going to join today.

01:49He wasn't going to join tomorrow. He wasn't going to join next week. In fact, knowing what these

01:56negotiations are like, he might not have joined at all. I think on balance, it's 60-40 that he would

02:05have done. But you never know until the deal is signed and the hand is shaken. So the Conservative

02:13leadership have jumped the gun on this. They've hoofed him out of the party, fearing he would appear

02:19today at 4.30 on this platform alongside me. And I've had to think very quickly as to how I should

02:28respond to this. And I just want to say thank you to Kemi Badenoch. This is the latest Christmas

02:36present I've ever had. The negotiations with Jenrick are over. There's nothing more to be said

02:43or to be done. You've handed me on a plate the man that is by far the most popular figure,

02:5060% approval rating on Con Home compared to our own 38. And you've perhaps today really done anything,

02:57more than anybody in history, to help realign the centre-right of British politics, which

03:02is much needed against a dreadful Labour government and an increasingly worrying extreme left-wing

03:09voice in this country. So I can't offer you drinks all round, but I'll buy Kemi lunch next

03:14week and say thank you. And on that note, I will welcome Robert Jenrick into this room and

03:21into Reform UK.