Robert Jenrick slammed Reform as “not a serious party” and claimed Nigel Farage “cannot even run a five-a-side team” just months before his shock defection from the Conservative Party.

The newest Reform MP’s comments were unearthed in a leaked tape obtained by The Telegraph.

The remarks were made as Mr Jenrick addressed Aldridge-Brownhills Conservative Association members at a dinner in March 2025.

It came just days after Reform withdrew the whip from Rupert Lowe over allegations of workplace bullying.

He told the audience: “It’s ultimately our party that is going to rescue this country.

“It’s not the Labour Party, it’s not the Lib Dems, it’s not actually Reform either.

“I mean, we’ve just seen in the last fortnight that Nigel Farage can’t even run a five-a-side team, so he’s not going to be able to run a country.

“They are not a serious party. We may have sympathy with some of the things that they say.

“We may understand why millions of our fellow countrymen and women have gone to Reform, but they are not the answer.”

However, the remarks are not the only time the ex-Shadow Justice Minister has launched scathing attacks on Reform

In May 2025, Mr Jenrick dismissed Mr Farage’s two-child benefit cap policy as “cooked up after one too many pints,” while a year earlier he claimed the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice was a “Labour Party sleeper agent”.

The Reform leader has also repeatedly criticised the former Tory minister, saying he was “formerly a man that believed in nothing” who now presented himself as a “great hardliner”.

In August, Mr Farage wrote on social media: “Jenrick is a fraud. I’ve always thought so, and this quote proves it,” referring to a 2022 remark in which he spoke about arranging more hotels for Channel migrants.

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Despite the previous spats between the pair, Mr Farage insisted that Mr Jenrick had “actually changed” as he welcomed him to to the party following lengthy discussions.

Addressing the past comments, the Reform leader said: “I’m allowed to change my mind, I’m allowed to watch the progression and the journey. And I’m a bit like Zia [Yusuf]. I don’t trust any of them naturally, they have to prove to me that they are genuinely repentant.

“And I think what this guy has done, with the energy that he’s put into his journalism, into his YouTube videos, into his speeches in Parliament, and talking to people who know him as I’ve done…I promise you I’m allowed to change my mind.”

Mr Jenrick added: “This is politics. People say all sorts of things in politics.”

Mr Farage confirmed that Mr Jenrick “will be joining our frontline team,” but did not reveal what role he will take.

The former Shadow Justice Secretary was sacked by Kemi Badenoch on Thursday morning and expelled from the Conservatives after she saw “irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible”.

His plans to join Reform were allegedly uncovered after materials, including a defection speech, were found “lying around.”

Mr Jenrick becomes Reform’s sixth MP and the second sitting Conservative to make the switch, following Danny Kruger’s defection in September.

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