28 August 2024, 13:52 | Updated: 28 August 2024, 13:54
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Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick said he wants to put Nigel Farage’s Reform UK “out of business”.
The former immigration minister acknowledged the Conservatives have a mountain to climb following the party’s worst election result in history and said winning back voters from Reform will be a key challenge.
He said he wants to make Reform “redundant” by persuading its supporters he can address their concerns on the number of people coming to the UK.
“I know how damaged the party’s brand is, how difficult the present situation is for our party, but I want to begin the long road of turning that around,” Mr Jenrick told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
“I acknowledge we have a mountain to climb, but the way to do that, I think, is to defend the good things we did in government, like on the economy – a decade of high employment – reforming our schools so our children are now amongst the most literate, but being honest about the mistakes that we made.”
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Jenrick rejected the idea of a deal with Mr Farage.
“I don’t think Nigel Farage wants to join the Conservative Party. I don’t think that he needs to. I want to put Reform out of business. I want to make them redundant, because I want to have clear policies on legal and illegal migration.”
He added: “What we need to do as a party is bring back those voters that we lost, the millions of voters we lost to Reform in the last election.
“And you do that by having a leader that has credibility on the issues that are of concern to Reform voters, and by adopting very clear positions, as I have done, not just in this leadership election, but for many months.”
Mr Jenrick also said his weight loss is partly due to the Ozempic drug prescribed by his GP but is more down to exercise and diet.
“I was overweight, I did try Ozempic for a period of time, it didn’t really suit me.
“It worked for a period of time but – guess what? – the easiest way to lose weight in the long term is to eat less and do some more exercise.”