Kemi sacked her most obvious rival for leadership ...now she can prepare for her next battle

KEMI Badenoch erased any doubts she possesses the steely ruthlessness Conservatives expect in their leaders.

- BY DAVID WILLIAMSON, CHRISTIAN CALGIE and MICHAEL KNOWLES

At 11.06am she stunned her party and the rest of Westminster with the announcement she had sacked her former leadership rival Robert Jenrick as Shadow Justice Secretary because he was plotting to defect.

This was a banishment, the news delivered in a bad-tempered phone call by her chief whip, and concluding with Mr Jenrick slamming down the phone after denying all allegations.

He was stripped of the whip, meaning he is not allowed to sit as a Conservative MP, and his membership of the party has been suspended.

This sends out a brutal message to any of Mrs Badenoch’s MPs flirting with defection — if they are rumbled, they will be out.

It was timed to coincide with a Reform UK press conference, where former Tory minister Lord Offord was named Reform’s Scottish leader. There, Nigel Farage confirmed he had talked with Mr Jenrick and a “number of very senior Conservatives”.

Rumours swirled as to why Mrs Badenoch swooped at that moment.

Tory sources say Mr Jenrick was known to be talking to Reform figures and even left papers “lying around” that got back to the Conservative leadership.

These provided “irrefutable” proof that he was planning to defect — and to time the announcement “to make it as painful as possible”. The decision was taken to “lance the boil” because the “evidence was overwhelming”.

One Shadow Cabinet member claimed Mr Jenrick had grown “overwhelmed and consumed by ambition”, especially after Mrs Badenoch saw her popularity rise. It is said a dossier of evidence against him includes “rude” criticisms of his Shadow Cabinet colleagues.

Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake took to the airwaves to make it clear there was no way back for Mr Jenrick.

"We're very clear on that," he said.