Robert Jenrick found himself on the receiving end of a brutal reality check on BBC Question Time last night, after journalist Jon Sopel delivered a withering assessment of the former Conservative minister’s shifting political loyalties.
During a heated exchange, Sopel reeled off a list of Jenrick’s past positions that appeared to leave the Reform UK politician momentarily lost for words.
“You were a Remainer when Cameron was PM, you were a Brexiteer under Boris, you said it was shameful that Truss was still in the party but voted for her budget – and now that the Tories are languishing in the polls you go to the party leading in the polls.”
The audience reaction suggested Sopel had struck a nerve – and a wider political truth.
Jenrick’s political journey has been unusually fluid even by Westminster standards. Once seen as a centrist ally of David Cameron who supported remaining in the European Union, he later repositioned himself as a hard-line Brexiteer and immigration hawk during the Boris Johnson years.
His subsequent resignation from government over the Rwanda policy – arguing it was not tough enough – further cemented his shift to the party’s right flank, before eventually defecting to Reform UK following the Conservatives’ election defeat.
Critics have long argued that these ideological pivots reflect political calculation rather than conviction. Even some on the right have questioned his authenticity, with Nigel Farage previously describing him as a “fraud” before later welcoming him into the Reform fold.
Sopel’s intervention on Question Time distilled those criticisms into a single, devastating narrative: a politician seemingly moving with the political wind rather than standing on consistent principle.
The moment was particularly awkward given Jenrick’s recent move to Reform – a party currently performing strongly in opinion polls – after years spent climbing the Conservative ranks. To detractors, the optics reinforce the accusation that ambition, not ideology, has been the defining thread of his career.
Last night’s exchange is already circulating widely online, not because of any theatrical put-down, but because of its simplicity. Sopel didn’t need to raise his voice. He simply listed the record.
And sometimes, that’s enough.