Oh dear. It seems that tensions in the Reform are boiling over in the summer heat. On Sunday, Robert Jenrick, the party’s Treasury spokesman, did a media round, talking up the party’s new policy on overtime for earners on less than £75,000. In the course of it, Sky’s Trevor Phillips took the chance to ask Jenrick about the party’s social housing plans:
Phillips: ‘You’re saying to me that a foreign person who is legally resident but lives in social housing will be deported under a Reform government just because of that they live in social housing?’
Jenrick: ‘Well not exclusively because of that. If they fail to meet our criteria because they’re not in work or they’re not working as many hours, not earning enough money, they won’t be able to renew their work visa because IRL won’t exist and they’ll be asked to leave.’
Zia Yusuf, the party’s Home Affairs spokesman, has now fired back on X, writing this morning in response to a two-day old tweet:
Robert’s answer is not Reform policy. As the person responsible for our deportation plan I want ensure people know where we stand: If a foreign national lives in social housing at taxpayer expense, they automatically fail our economic test and will be deported.
The move has allowed the Tories to gleefully highlight all Yusuf and Jenrick’s past comments slagging each other off. A senior party source told Steerpike that ‘Everyone knows Zia and Jenrick hate each other, that’s an open secret in Westminster. It’s fun to see it come out into the open. You’ve got people going round saying “Unite the Right” and Rees-Mogg calling for Tory-Reform pacts. Utterly bonkers.’ Not sure there’s much to add to that eh…
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