Jenrick tells Badenoch: The Tory party 'is not a Twitter account'

Robert Jenrick stoked a feud with Tory leadership rival Kemi Badenoch today as he swiped the party 'is not a Twitter account'.

The former immigration minister continued an increasingly bitter row with Ms Badenoch as the race to replace Rishi Sunak nears an end.

Conservative members have until 5pm on Thursday to vote for either Mr Jenrick or Ms Badenoch to be their next party leader.

Ms Badenoch is the bookies' favourite to be crowned the winner of the Tory contest.

But, amid a fierce war-of-words between the pair, Mr Jenrick has dramatically warned the party might have 'no future' if the ex-business secretary is elected.

The latest spat was sparked by Ms Badenoch using a newspaper interview to question Mr Jenrick's 'integrity' and his record as a government minister.

She took a thinly-veiled swipe at her rival's past role in a planning dispute, involving a Tory donor, while he was housing secretary.

Ms Badenoch suggested Mr Jenrick's sacking from the Cabinet role had come with a 'whiff of impropriety'.

Speaking to Times Radio this morning, Mr Jenrick said it was a 'mistake' for Mr Jenrick to take a personal dig at him.

'It was a mistake by Kemi, because if there's one thing I've learned over the summer talking to Conservative Party members, it's this. They are sick of the drama,' he said.

'They want to end all these excuses. They want to stop the squabbling and the backbiting. They want the party to unite and to be a team. That is what I want to do. 

'So I am not going to speak ill of fellow Conservatives. I think if we do that, that will be the end of the Conservative Party.'

Mr Jenrick claimed that Ms Badenoch was resorting to 'personal insults' because 'she doesn't really have any policies to talk about'.

He also warned the Tories not to 'go down the rabbit hole of drama and infighting', as he lashed out at Ms Badenoch's history of combativeness of social media.

'The Conservative Party is the world's oldest political party. Hitherto, it's most successful,' he added.

'It is not a Twitter account. It should not be engaging in infighting. We should just be working to deliver for the party and for the country.'

In 2020, Mr Jenrick approved an east London redevelopment scheme against the recommendation of a planning inspector.

But he later had to quash his own approval after conceding that the decision was 'unlawful' due to 'apparent bias'.

It emerged that former media mogul Richard Desmond had donated £12,000 to the Tories two weeks after Mr Jenrick stepped in to approve the scheme.

And it was also revealed how Mr Desmond and Mr Jenrick had sat together at a Conservative fundraising dinner two months before the planning decision.

Although former prime minister Boris Johnson stood by Mr Jenrick at the time of the row, he was later sacked as housing secretary in a Cabinet reshuffle in 2021.

Ms Badenoch told the Telegraph over the weekend: 'Integrity matters… with me you'd have a leader where there's no scandal.

'I was never sacked for anything, I didn't have to resign in disgrace or, you know, because there was a whiff of impropriety.'