Robert Jenrick has said he would reinstate the Rwanda scheme (Image: Getty)
Robert Jenrick has admitted taking Ozempic to lose weight before joining the Tory leadership race.
The former Immigration Minister – who wants to replace Rishi Sunak – said he took the drug for six weeks last autumn but “didn’t particularly enjoy it”.
He told Politico: “To be honest, I was overweight. I took Ozempic for a short period of time, didn’t particularly enjoy it, but it was helpful. Since then, I’ve just lost weight in the normal way by eating less, eating more healthily, doing some exercise – going to the gym, going running. I’ve lost four stone in 12 months.”
And the Tory leadership candidate used an LBC interview on Tuesday to stress that his party must target disillusioned voters who sided with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in the General Election.
The first flight to Rwanda was grounded at the 11th hour (Image: Getty)
He insisted he would reinstate the Rwanda deportation plan if he were to be elected as Prime Minister.
Amid concerns over the cost of the deal with Kigali, which Home Secretary Yvette Cooper claimed could amount to £10billion, Mr Jenrick warned “the cost of illegal migration is very high”.
He added: “And there’s not a price that you can easily put on securing the borders of our country. A country without borders is not really a country at all.”
Pressed whether the £10billion figure was wrong, Mr Jenrick said: “Well, I just don’t know what that number relates to. But what I do know is that they are bandying around numbers both on the public finances and on illegal migration, to justify political choices.”
The Tory leadership candidate said he would want “a stronger version of the Rwanda plan”, as he turned his frustration on MPs who blocked a bid to strengthen the Rwanda Bill in December.
The former minister said: “That’s what I proposed at the turn of the year, one which would enable us to detain people upon arrival and then remove them within hours or days rather than weeks and months. I believe that’s possible. It would have been possible if the Government at the time had accepted the amendments that I put down with around 60 other Conservative MPs.”
Mr Jenrick suggested that winning back voters who switched to Labour or the Liberal Democrats would come after an initial task of reuniting the Right of British politics, adding: “We’ll never get to make the later steps unless we get that first one right.”
This included £290million handed to the African nation, as well as “chartering flights that never took off” and detaining hundreds of people who were later released.
