Newsletter #48: Silence of the Jenrick

PLUS: Katie Lam — a future leader?

Good morning.

This is meant to be the ‘Monday newsletter’. Yet it seems to be turning into the ‘Sunday newsletter’. It’s a short one today: barely anything has happened this week in frontline politics.

Today, we discuss Robert Jenrick’s silence, and Katie Lam’s growing prominence.

This newsletter’s agenda: Silence of the Jenrick (paid); Katie Lam — a future leader? (paid).

Silence of the Jenrick

My original assumption was that Jenrick would be capable of bouncing back from the blow of the Afghan interpreters scandal fairly easily. This has not proven to be the case, despite the story disappearing from the news and generally having depressingly little public salience.

Now, it would be an exaggeration to say that Jenrick has disappeared completely. He’s still doing more than almost any other Shadow Cabinet Minister (except perhaps Chris Philp). He’s said positive words about the protests in Epping. He’s continued his relentless, uncritical support for Israel and his attacks on Islam. Most curiously of all, he’s appeared with the Women’s Safety Institute, and seems to be leaning more and more into their rhetoric of protecting British women and girls from immigrants.

And yet, whisper it if you must: he just doesn’t seem to have the same energy as he did before. His most recent videos, on shoplifting and phone thefts, didn’t do as well as many of his others. Perhaps this was just the subject matter not catching the public eye. Or maybe it’s just random. But perhaps we could conclude that this had something to do, even if only indirectly, with him losing his ‘mojo’? Or perhaps he has lost the support of critical influencers, and thus no longer achieves such virality?

Maybe it’s just me, but what has seemingly happened is that there has, at least for now, been a ‘vibe shift’ against Jenrick. People who wanted ‘zero seats’, but briefly were willing to hear the Tories out in the context of Farage increasingly moderating his stance on immigration just as Jenrick became more and more radical, are now firmly out of the Tory camp once again. The Afghan interpreters scandal seems to have been used as an opportunity for many, whether for better or for worse, to throw their lot in with Reform.