Conservative leadership hopeful’s plan could lead to many senior Tories refusing to serve on the frontbench

In his interview on the Today programme this morning Robert Jenrick, who has been running on a rightwing in the Tory leadership contest, denied telling MPs in private that, if elected leader, he would flip back to the centre. But he also refused to accept the premise of the question, and so it was not entirely clear what he meant.

Justin Webb, the presenter, asked him about a report in the i suggesting that Jenrick’s rightwing stance is just tactical. The story says “senior Tories have cast major doubts over the chances of Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick leading the Conservatives into the next election amid growing fears over party unity” and it includes this quote.

Some moderates hope the candidates will tack back to the centre ground, should they succeed in convincing the Tory party membership to elect them.

One member of the Shadow Cabinet said they had assurances Jenrick would rein in his right-wing polemic if elected party leader. “He has promised me he will turn to the centre,” they said. “I suspect he has told other people the same.”

I don’t know where that quote comes from, and I wouldn’t believe everything that you read in the papers.

I haven’t said that, no.

But let me just address the broader point that it raises. Because there are those who say that the Conservative party, were I to lead it, is going to shift to the right.

I actually don’t see these labels as at all relevant. What I want to see is the Conservative party occupy what I describe as the common ground of British politics.

The reason that I believe we should leave the European convention on human rights is not an ideological one. I came to this view through the practical experience I had as a minister, in particular at the Home Office, where I saw that we as a country were not able to do the most basic duty of the state, which is to secure our borders.

We weren’t able to remove dangerous criminals from the country. We weren’t able to remove terror suspects from the country, and we certainly weren’t able to set up a robust but important and credible deterrent, such as the Rwanda one, because of our continued membership with the ECHR.

It would be one of the stable of Conservative policies, so yes, we would go into the next election with it in our manifesto.

I believe it’s very important that we do this … I’ve already said to James, who is a friend, someone I respect enormously, that I would be delighted for him to serve in the shadow cabinet should he want to do so.

I don’t think the point of difference is as big as perhaps you suggest it is. There is now a consensus within the Conservative party that the ECHR is not working in the interests of the British people, for all the reasons that I’ve just described.

Most people now are saying that, at a bare minimum, we need to reform the ECHR.