Another Reform UK event full of fireworks, laughs, anger and hope. Robert Jenrick’s defection last Thursday, despite being announced in a rather messy press conference, almost didn’t feel real until this evening.
But seeing him on stage with Farage and the rest of the Reform UK team, one can’t help but wonder what the balance of Tory MP reaction will be: Delight that Mr Jenrick’s finally cleared off, or fear of what the Jenrick-Farage duo may do to their hopes in 2029. Jenrick’s speech was undeniably very good, and went down a treat in the hall, packed with around 2,500 attendees from a mere 30 mile radius on just three day’s notice. He was cheered to the rafters as he unloaded shot after shot at his former colleagues, and finally took some potshots at « deluded » Kemi Badenoch, whom until now he had been surprisingly resistant to insulting.
Voters I spoke to after said they had been delighted with Mr Jenrick’s move, with one saying she had voted for him last time despite being furious with the Tories such was her love for him personally, but has spent the last year with crossed fingers hoping he would defect.
Some talk already in this hall about him being a successor to Mr Farage may be far off, but clearly
Mr Jenrick has been reborn and reenergised by his major career decision.
The key question for Mr Farage will be whether he can now manage such a large number of big personalities, after years of being accused of running a one-man band.
The Reform UK chief might rightly complain he’s damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t.
But what does the real Newark make of all of this?
The easiest place to find out local opinions is, typically, the pub. Unfortunately for me we’re deep into the heart of dry January, and Nottinghamshire is not somewhere that views such woke metropolitan nonsense lightly.
After being told to ‘f*** off’ by one local at the bar for ordering a latte, I find a former RAF vet, who, without prompting, raises two crucial questions for Reform UK:
- Would Reform survive without Nigel Farage
- Are too many Tories joining Reform UK
Nigel Farage attempted to broach both of these points at his rally, where we saw a parade of David Bull, Lee Anderson, Rob Jenrick, and the local Reform council leader.
Tellingly, one of the biggest rounds of applause of the evening went to the latter, when he spoke about pothole filling.
The bread and butter politics of daily life is much more important to ordinary voters than the Westminster psychodrama, and more politicians may realise this if they, like Reform UK, held rallies of this type.
Rob took to the stage, amid shouting from a heckler – something Nigel Farage astonishingly tells me may have actually been set up as a test for Mr Jenrick to deal with.
Mid-interview the relaxed, red wine-drinking Reform chief sprints off to watch this, knowing that there were two lefties in the audience and wanting to see how his new recruit would deal with it.
He passed the test, Nigel tells me afterwards, and the home crowd loved him.
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