Robert Jenrick

Robert Edward Jenrick (born 9 January 1982) is a British politician who served as Minister of State for Immigration from 2022 to 2023.

Jenrick was born in Wolverhampton in 1982.

He grew up in Shropshire near the town of Ludlow, as well as in Herefordshire.

He was news editor at student newspaper Varsity in 2001.

Jenrick attended Wolverhampton Grammar School before reading history at St John's College, Cambridge, graduating in 2003.

He obtained a Thouron Award to study Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2004.

He subsequently studied law, gaining a graduate diploma in law from The College of Law in 2005 and completing a legal practice course at BPP Law School in 2006.

Jenrick qualified as a solicitor in 2008 and practised corporate law with Skadden Arps and Sullivan & Cromwell in London and Moscow.

At the 2010 UK general election, Jenrick contested Newcastle-under-Lyme for the Conservative Party but lost to Paul Farrelly of the Labour Party by 1,582 votes.

In November 2013, Jenrick was selected to contest the Parliamentary constituency of Newark, where the sitting member Patrick Mercer had resigned following a cash for lobbying scandal.

During the campaign, Jenrick was criticised by UKIP's candidate Roger Helmer for owning several properties.

Chris Grayling, the justice secretary, defended Jenrick, stating that being self-made and successful was nothing to be ashamed of.

A member of the Conservative Party, Jenrick has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Newark since 2014.

Born in Wolverhampton, Jenrick attended St John's College, Cambridge, where he read history, followed by the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied political science.

He then studied law and qualified as a solicitor.

He was elected for Newark in a 2014 by-election following the resignation of Conservative MP Patrick Mercer after a cash-for-lobbying scandal.

Immediately prior to being elected to Parliament in 2014 Jenrick was a director of Christie's, the auction house.

At the by-election held on 5 June 2014, he retained the seat with a reduced majority of 7,403.

They concluded that the Conservative Party had contravened the spending rules three times (the 2014 Newark by-election being one of those times) and committed offences twice, and accordingly fined the party £70,000.

Shortly after his election in 2014, Jenrick was elected to the Health and Social Care Select Committee.

From 2015 to 2018, Jenrick was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Esther McVey (Employment Minister), Michael Gove and Liz Truss (Justice Secretaries), and Amber Rudd (Home Secretary).

In February 2015, he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the minister of state for employment at the Department for Work and Pensions, Esther McVey.

Jenrick was re-elected in the 2015 UK general election with a majority of 18,474, or 57% of the vote, the largest majority in the history of his constituency of Newark and the largest swing of any Conservative MP in that election.

In May 2015, he was appointed PPS to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Michael Gove, and continued to fulfil the role under Gove's successor, Liz Truss from July 2016.

In February 2016, Channel 4 News alleged overspending in Jenrick's 2014 by-election victory.

Jenrick said he was confident his election expenses had been compiled in compliance with the law.

Nottinghamshire Police took no action as too much time had passed since the alleged offence.

Jenrick was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 UK referendum.

Jenrick has been Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on International Trade & Investment and Vice Chairman of the Groups on China and France.

In March 2017, the Electoral Commission released a report on their investigation into spending allegations at a number of elections.

At the snap 2017 UK general election, Jenrick was again re-elected, increasing his vote share to 62.7% but decreasing his majority to 18,149.

Following the election, he was appointed as PPS to the home secretary, Amber Rudd.

In July 2017, he was elected by fellow MPs to be their representative on the Board of the Conservative Party.

He served as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury under Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond from 2018 to 2019.

As Chairman of the APPG for the Prevention of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity, Jenrick along with Home Secretary Amber Rudd met Nadia Murad, an Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist who was in 2018 awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, to discuss how the UK could help with the reconstruction of Yazidi areas.

He was appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury by Prime Minister Theresa May in her reshuffle of January 2018.

He previously served as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government from 2019 to 2021 and as Minister of State for Health from September to October 2022.

Jenrick was appointed Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government by Boris Johnson in July 2019, a position he held until September 2021.

Jenrick returned to government under Truss in September 2022 as Minister of State for Health and was appointed to a cabinet attending role as Minister of State for Immigration after the appointment of Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister the following month.

On 6 December 2023, Jenrick resigned from his position as Minister of State for Immigration over "strong disagreements" with the government's Rwanda asylum plan, arguing that it did not go far enough to tackle illegal immigration.