That was a packed speech from Robert Jenrick in a relatively packed hall, compared with tumbleweed turnouts for other shadow ministers at this conference. For a lot of Tories he is the most exciting figure in the party, and for months he has been a favourite to succeed Kemi Badenoch. He knows what he wants – the leadership, if he can get it. And there was a detectable nervousness while he spoke, with a slight quake particularly visible during his prop routine with a judge’s wig (part of an attack on “activist” judges).
He began with a series of drive-bys. On Keir Starmer, who “combined the management style of David Brent with the administrative grip of Blackadder’s Baldrick”. On David Lammy, whom he mocked by laboriously recounting a Celebrity Mastermind appearance from Christmas 2008 in which the Deputy PM gave a series of incorrect answers. On the Attorney General Richard Hermer, whom he branded “a useful idiot for our enemies”. And on Liz Truss. He joked about her trying to enter the Big Brother house for a heavy fee, before slightly pulling the punch (“too soon? Perhaps too soon?”). He did not attack or even address Nigel Farage and Reform.
Then came the announcements in which Jenrick pledged to roll back the constitutional innovations of New Labour. For one, a future Tory government would abolish the Judicial Appointments Commission and replace it with a souped-up Lord Chancellor role. Jenrick said: “The Lord Chancellor will once again appoint the judges, no more Quangos. And they will be instructed never to permit political activists of any political hue to don the wig again.” Labour immediately rebuked the proposal as an attempt to politicise the judiciary through ministerial patronage of judges. In a statement published in response to the speech, David Lammy said “When politicians start deciding which judges can stay or go, that is democratic backsliding and Robert Jenrick knows it.”
Jenrick went on to say the Sentencing Council should be abolished too, following a row between the council and the government earlier this year over so-called “two-tier justice”. He said the Justice Secretary would instead be responsible for setting sentencing guidelines because they would be “accountable to parliament”. Former attorney general Dominic Grieve has already called it a “bonkers” proposal.
Jenrick also pledged to abolish immigration tribunals, also to correct what he sees as the infiltration of “activist” judges. He was more vague on what or whom would replace these. The Supreme Court was the one Blair-era judicial reform to avoid Jenrick’s wrath. But don’t be surprised if he uses next year’s speech to propose the restoration of the Law Lords.
He then broadened his canvas and spoke of how, like Michael Heseltine, he spends each day thinking about how he can “fight, fight, fight” the Labour government. There were a few knowing chuckles as Jenrick, the preeminent rival of a female Tory leader sometimes likened to Margaret Thatcher, compared himself to the Thatcher’s nemesis. In an odd digression, Jenrick invited the audience to imagine his bedtime routine with wife Michal Berkner. Despite praise for his viral online videos and terrier enthusiasm, there are no shortage of Tories at this conference who express worries that Jenrick is “a bit weird”.
In a final flourish he roved beyond the justice brief and spoke of his patriotism for the roars at Wembley and, channelling AE Housman’s A Shropshire Lad, those “blue remembered hills over black country towns”. His final Maga-ish line was “let’s take our country back!”
The background to this speech was a hot-mic tape from March, released by the Guardian, in which Jenrick complained he “didn’t see another white face” on a visit to the Handsworth area of Birmingham. While Birmingham’s former Tory mayor Andy Street was quick to call the comments wrong, Badenoch appeared to defend him. She said “there are not enough people integrating” and “I’m very worried about what is happening in Birmingham”. It suggests Badenoch’s new-found voice on racial politics has already gone quiet – I wrote on Sunday that she had finally decided to call out a rise in racial identity politics on the right (as well as the left). But despite the possibility of a bust-up, this was not a repeat of that infamous 1968 stand-off between another Tory leader and a headline-grabbing Wolverhampton-born shadow minister over the issue of race.
[Further reading: Mel Stride’s tax rebate for the young is a wealth transfer to pensioners]
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