Has Robert Jenrick quietly employed a new campaign manager to head up his never-ending quest to become leader of the Conservative Party – one Kemi Badenoch?
Jenrick, who continues, in effect, to campaign for the Tory leadership despite the competition having technically ended with his comprehensive defeat to Badenoch fully 10 months ago, has managed to wangle a tête-à-tête with US vice-president JD Vance – because his boss is busy.
The justice secretary – who is neither Badenoch’s deputy nor even shadows one of the great offices of state – will visit Vance at his Oxfordshire summer holiday retreat for a one-on-one meeting on Tuesday before a drinks event, while Badenoch is staying away.
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A Conservative spokesman told the Daily Telegraph aides for Badenoch and Vance had been in conversation about a meeting but “just couldn’t make it work with schedules”.
It is just one of a number of meetings Badenoch – who, one would imagine, has a vague fancy of maybe being prime minister – has managed to miss. She is said to have turned down a number of security briefings to which she is entitled as leader of the opposition, including one on the Afghan data leak and secret resettlement scheme in March as she didn’t think it was “urgent”.
Jenrick, meanwhile, has spent the summer touring the broadcast studios speaking about matters well beyond his brief, leaving some to wonder exactly who the leader of the Conservative Party is.
In October the Conservatives will have their first chance to oust Badenoch. Just 15% of Tory MPs – that’s 18 following their drubbing last year – need to submit letters of no confidence in order for her to face a vote. Which, in all possibility, she’ll send someone else in her place to.
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