Jenrick attempts to cap his political comeback with the Tory crown

When Suella Braverman first suggested to Robert Jenrick that Britain should withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights, he was, she said, horrified by the idea.

At the time she was Home Secretary and he had been made Immigration Minister, effectively her deputy, so that, many at Westminster believed, he could keep an eye on her for Rishi Sunak, who was wary of her political ambitions.

Two years later, the man she described as a centrist supporter of Rishi and a supporter of the party's left has now made withdrawal from the convention the centerpiece of his bid for leadership of the Conservative Party in an attempt bold to outflank its right-wing rivals.

This political reinvention helped propel him into the runoff vote of rank-and-file members that will decide the outcome, securing Ms. Braverman's support in the process.

His supporters said he had been radicalized by his time at the Home Office, concluding that the government could never control immigration as long as the UK remained bound by the rulings of the Strasbourg court.

If he succeeds, it will represent a remarkable turnaround for the former business lawyer whose political career seemed stalled just three years ago.

Just two years after being unexpectedly elevated to the Cabinet by Boris Johnson, he was unceremoniously sacked, his brief stint in high office marred by scandal and controversy.

However, his shock resignation last year, in protest at Mr Sunak's failure to implement his plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, was seen by some as evidence he was planning already setting the stage for a leadership bid ahead of an expected Tory defeat in the general election.

Those suspicions were only reinforced when he re-emerged after a very visible glow, sporting a new haircut and losing four stone with the help of weight loss drug Ozempic.

Throughout his journey, he has been strongly supported in his ambitions by his wife, Michal Berkner, a high-flying Israeli-American lawyer, seen by some as the driving force behind his bid to lead the country.

Born in Wolverhampton to working-class parents, his father was a gas fitter who set up his own business and his mother, a secretary, Robert Jenrick, was nevertheless privately educated.

His tuition fees at Wolverhampton Grammar School were paid for by his grandmother with the help of life insurance following the death of his grandfather.

The first in his family to go to university, he won a place to read history at Cambridge before going on to study as a lawyer, although his friends told him his heart had always been in politics.

He first came to prominence when, as junior Treasury minister, he joined Mr Sunak and fellow centrist Oliver Dowden in calling on Mr Johnson to run for the leadership following the resignation of Theresa May in 2019.

His reward for his early support of the new Prime Minister was a big move into the Cabinet, becoming Communities Secretary at just 37 years old.

Months later, he found himself embroiled in a political firestorm after rejecting the advice of a government planning inspector and approving an application from Tory billionaire donor Richard Desmond to build a luxury housing complex a billion dollars on the site of the Westferry printing works, on the Isle of Dogs, east of London.

He later had to admit the decision was illegal after it emerged Mr Desmond had approached him about the project while they were sitting together at a Conservative fundraising dinner, even showing him a promotional video on his cell phone.

He then texted the minister to highlight the need to act quickly as Tower Hamlets council was set to introduce a community infrastructure tax, adding: We don't want to give the Marxists a pile of cudgels (sic) for nothing!

The revelations sparked furious demands for Mr Jenricks to resign, but Mr Johnson has always been reluctant to offer a political scalp to his opponents or the media that supported him.

But that doesn't end the controversies.

He was heavily criticized for awarding a 25 million government grant to his constituency as part of a program to help left-behind areas, even though it was ranked by authorities as the 270th largest city. most deprived in England.

During the Covid-19 lockdown, he regularly spoke at government press conferences, telling people to follow the rules and stay at home, only to face accusations that he himself had ignored the rules. regulations by traveling 150 miles from his London home to his Herefordshire mansion and then taking a trip. another 40 mile trip to visit his parents.

The final straw, however, came when his proposals to relax planning laws to speed up the pace of house building had to be abandoned to avoid a revolt by angry Tory MPs.

By now Mr Johnson had had enough and in September 2021 Mr Jenrick was sacked in a cabinet reshuffle. At this point, his future prospects seemed bleak.

When his former ally, Mr Sunak, quickly succeeded him, he was given the key post of Immigration Minister.

Although the intention behind this may have been to keep Ms. Braverman in check, he quickly echoed her harsh rhetoric, warning that uncontrolled migration threatened to cannibalize public compassion, prompting accusations of participating in politics of dog whistle.

After Ms Braverman's dismissal, and with the Conservatives showing no signs of recovery in the polls, Mr Jenrick finally turned decisively against Mr Sunak, with his explosive decision last December to resign, carrying a another hard blow to his post as Prime Minister.

In the wake of the party's crushing defeat in the July election, he did not shy away from stirring controversy by seeking to court the conservative right.

Mr Jenricks told the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham that British forces were killing rather than capturing terrorists because they feared European judges would order their release, sparking fury, particularly among veterans.

Once dismissed as Robert Generic, it now remains to be seen whether the party's rank-and-file members are prepared to embrace his vision.