Robert Jenrick, Reform MP, former Tory and self-styled ‘shadow chancellor’ this week wrote to constituents in Bassetlaw, canvassing their opinions on the issues that grind their gears.
Residents in the Nottinghamshire constituency received a letter from Bobby J along with a survey and Freepost envelope, asking whether cutting crime was more important to them than pothole repairs, controlling immigration or taxation, and wondering whether they wanted to scrap the pension triple lock, which “gives our pensioners dignity in retirement” (leading question, much?).
“Together, we’re getting the job done for Bassetlaw,” boasted Jenrick in his letter. “As a Nottinghamshire MP, I am honoured to represent part of Bassetlaw.”
And there’s the rub. Though Jenrick’s Newark constituency does indeed contain parts of the district of Bassetlaw (a few specific wards such as Clayworth and Sturton/Sturton-le-Steeple, plus areas like East Markham, Rampton and Tuxford & Trent), it is very different indeed from the Bassetlaw constituency, a separate parliamentary seat which covers the vast majority of the district.
That Bassetlaw constituency is held by Jo White, a Labour MP who took the seat from the Conservatives’ Brendan Clarke-Smith in 2024 and may well be wondering why her neighbouring MP is writing to her constituents.
The answer may well lie in a Sunday Times article earlier this month detailing how the local Conservatives in Newark, still angry about Jenrick’s flit to Nigel Farage’s mob at the start of this year, are increasingly confident of taking the seat back from him when the next general election comes. Their new candidate will be unveiled to much fanfare at the party’s East Midlands conference next month.
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Luke Tryl, pollster for the More in Common think tank, told the paper that seats like Newark offered hope for the Tories next time. It is “emblematic not just of the MPs who moved over but of the type of voters”, he said. “They’ve made gains with that group and should be looking at it as opportunities to consolidate their hold on the right.”
Is that why Jenrick appears to be rolling the pitch for a chicken run to neighbouring Bassetlaw at the next general election? Reform came third there in 2024, 6.6 per cent behind the second-placed Tories but up 10.8 per cent on the Brexit Party’s vote in 2019.
Jenrick, of course, would insist that he is loyal to those who elected him in Newark. But as Kemi Badenoch, and indeed Newark’s local Conservative Party, would attest, that loyalty only lasts as long as it suits Robert Jenrick…
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