Robert Jenrick wanted to ‘destroy’ Zia Yusuf by accessing private information on him just months before the former housing secretary defected to Reform.
According to the Times, leaked messages show Jenrick asked a senior Conservative Party figure for the details Yusuf had provided when he applied to be a Tory party candidate.
This took place just six months before Jenrick defected from the Tories to Reform, with the Newark MP saying in one message “we should destroy him.”
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This came after Jenrick accused Yusuf of antisemitism for liking an antisemitic post on X which criticised Jenrick’s wife.
At the time, Yusuf said a member of his team had “accidentally” liked the post, something Jenrick said was “bullsh*t.”
In leaked messages seen by the Times, Jenrick said it was “dog eat dog” and the “gloves are off” as he asked for information on Yusuf.
The messages reportedly read: “Do we have any information on Zia? Did he apply to be a candidate? Do we have his candidate application form? We should destroy him. Rob.”
A source told the Times that Jenrick and his team were “obsessed” with undermining Yusuf, and “incandescent” at the Reform man “ridiculing his record on immigration.”
Jenrick’s team have denied claims they were investigating Yusuf.
Jenrick defected to Reform from the Tories earlier this year, the latest step on his somewhat fluid political journey.
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.