Like a rat leaving a sinking ship, Jenrick quitting is bad news for Rishi

THE well-known tendency of rats to vacate sinking ships is what comes to mind as we consider the departure from government of that sleek, well-fed rodent, Robert Jenrick.

- Melanie McDonagh

His resignation letter was one for connoisseurs of the genre. “This is not a decision I have arrived at lightly, but one born of principle and reached after careful consideration and many months of trying to convince you of the merits of my position. You will retain my full support on the backbenches.” Don’t you love that bit about support from the backbenches? And principle?

What it looks like from here is a man who has calculated that, given the probable implosion of the Conservative Party come the election, the safest place to be is away from the front benches, having established himself as an opponent of light-touch immigration policy. It may also be that he really doesn’t care if his departure helps confirm the electorate in its opinion that the kindest thing you can do to the Conservative Party next year is to put it out of its misery. When the PM told his MPs that they must “unite or die” — a variant of the gag that they must hang together or swing separately — he is saying nothing less than the truth. And the factions on the Right of the party who imagine that there’s scope for another rebellion have simply lost any sense of how they look from outside, viz, unhinged.