Bob a job
Tory leadership , Issue 1632

TRIUMPH for Robert Jenrick, who emerged last week as frontrunner in the Conservative leadership race, coming top in the first round with the backing of 28 fellow Tory MPs.

The timing of Jenrick's early win, on the day the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire published its final report, provides a reminder how ineffective he was during two ignoble years as secretary of state for housing, communities and local government under Boris Johnson.

Safety catch
When he was appointed in July 2019, hundreds of towers up and down the country were covered with dangerous cladding. He waited almost two years to unveil a flawed loan plan for leaseholders in buildings between 11m and 18m in height to pay to strip off the unsafe material themselves.

Additional funding of £3.5bn, limited to buildings over 18m and ignoring the widening building safety crisis, was a fraction of the £15bn MPs on the housing select committee said was needed. As the Eye noted at the time: "Leaseholders and Tory MPs alike [accused] his department of 'incompetence' and 'betrayal'."

His relations with Grenfell campaigners deteriorated so far they refused to meet him.

No quick fix
All of which helps explain why, of figures last month showing 4,630 residential buildings over 11m with unsafe cladding, remediation work has started on just half (see last Eye).

But then Jenrick was a busy man, doubtless preoccupied nodding through a £1bn luxury housing development in London's Isle of Dogs for press baron Richard "Dirty Des" Desmond against the advice of a government planning inspector – and just in time for Desmond to avoid an infrastructure levy of more than £40m!

More top stories in the latest issue:

SALES TARGETS
Arms manufacturers won't be hit by the foreign secretary's partial suspension of arms exports to Israel, especially with the F-35 jet given an exemption.

RIGHT & WRONG?
The home secretary has launched a review of counter-extremism policy – but it's unlikely the government's lead adviser on the subject will be much help.

GOLDEN SHOWER
A Labour MP with a government role has received financial help from a company that advises the super-rich how to buy citizenship or residency.

CALLED TO ORDURE
Tempers are fraying among members of the old order in the House of Lords after the government published its bill to eject hereditary peers from parliament.

THE NEW BOYS
The new Labour MP for Ilford South, Jas Athwal, has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, not least being exposed as a rogue landlord.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS
The "you need us more than we need you" mentality of previous PMs is in danger of being repeated by Keir Starmer, even if his EU priorities are modest.