Robert Jenrick has vowed to “bring this coalition together” to ensure that Conservatives and Reform UK are no longer fighting each other for votes by the time of the next election, according to a leaked recording obtained by Sky News.

The shadow justice secretary told an event with students last month he would try “one way or another” to make sure Reform UK and the Tories do not compete at another general election and hand a second term in office to Sir Keir Starmer in the process.

In the exclusive audio, Mr Jenrick can be heard telling the students he is still working hard to put Reform UK out of business – the position of the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.

However, more controversially, the comments also suggest he can envisage a time when that position may no longer be viable and has to change. He denies any suggestion this means he is advocating a Tory-Reform UK pact.

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The shadow justice secretary came second to Mrs Badenoch in the last leadership contest and is the bookies’ favourite to replace her as the next Conservative leader.

Speaking to the UCL Conservative association dinner in late March, he can be heard saying: “[Reform UK] continues to do well in the polls. And my worry is that they become a kind of permanent or semi-permanent fixture on the British political scene. And if that is the case, and I say, I am trying to do everything I can to stop that being the case, then life becomes a lot harder for us, because the right is not united.

“And then you head towards the general election, where the nightmare scenario is that Keir Starmer sails in through the middle as a result of the two parties being disunited. I don’t know about you, but I’m not prepared for that to happen.

“I want the right to be united. And so, one way or another, I’m determined to do that and to bring this coalition together and make sure we unite as a nation as well.”

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This is the furthest a member of the shadow cabinet has gone in suggesting that they think the approach to Reform UK may evolve before the next general election.

Last night, Mr Jenrick denied this meant he was advocating a pact with Reform UK.

Sir Keir used Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday to accuse Ms Badenoch of having “lost control of her party” and said Mr Jenrick and Reform leader Nigel Farage are “cooking up their joint manifesto”.

“The member for Clacton (Mr Farage) is going to do what he always does – eat the Tory party for breakfast,” he added.

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A source close to Mr Jenrick said: “Rob’s comments are about voters and not parties. He’s clear we have to put Reform out of business and make the Conservatives the natural home for all those on the right, rebuilding the coalition of voters we had in 2019 and can have again. But he’s under no illusions how difficult that is – we have to prove over time we’ve changed and can be trusted again.”

Mrs Badenoch has said in interviews that she cannot see any circumstances in which the Tories under her leadership would do a deal with Reform UK.

Richard Fuller, the Conservative’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, insisted to Sky News Mr Jenrick was not talking about a coalition, but meant if you divide up “the right” then “you end up with a far left government” and “we want to make sure we don’t repeat that mistake”.

Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice told Sky News “competition is a good thing” and for people who do not want to vote for Labour, “they’ve got to vote for common sense, courage and leadership, and you only get that from Reform UK”.

“Frankly, they [the Conservatives] should disappear into sort of yester-year,” he said.

“And we are at a once in a century moment where a new party is taking over from the Conservatives.”

Mr Tice added: “Robert, you’re saying some good things on justice. But you’re in the wrong party, chap.”

Chair of the Labour Party, Ellie Reeves, said: “I think people have the right to know what they’re voting for when they go to the polls, are they voting for a coalition of chaos or voting Conservative, getting Reform, voting Reform, getting Conservative?

“These grubby backroom deals Jenrick seems to be talking about, they need to come clean about it, Badenoch needs to come clean about it.”

In next week’s local elections, Reform UK will compete directly against the Tories in a series of contests from Kent to Lincolnshire. At last year’s general election, in more than 170 of the 251 constituencies lost by the Conservatives the Reform vote was greater than the margin of the Tories’ defeat.

Today’s YouGov/Sky voting intention figures put Reform UK in front on 25%, Labour on 23% and the Conservatives on 20%, with the Lib Dems on 16% and Greens on 10%.

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With news overnight that a peace conference in London today would be going ahead without UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy or US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, are peace talks over Ukraine going backwards? Sam and Anne discuss what’s going on.

And Rachel Reeves is landing in Washington today for what promises to be one of the most important IMF spring meeting in years – will she make any progress on a trade deal for the UK?

Also, Sam has obtained a leaked recording of former Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick vowing to “bring this coalition together” to ensure that Conservatives and Reform UK are no longer fighting each other for votes.

Plans for strike action will be drawn up by the UK’s largest teaching union when its executive meets this evening, Sky News has learnt.

The special executive of the National Education Union (NEU) will map out a number of scenarios in a full ballot for industrial action while it waits for a final pay offer from the government.

The Department for Education (DfE) has proposed a 2.8% pay rise for the 2025/26 financial year, saying it was an “appropriate” offer that would “maintain the competitiveness” of teachers’ pay despite a “challenging financial backdrop”.

It comes on top of the 5.5% pay rise accepted by teachers last year for 2024/25, which followed eight days of strikes in England in 2023.

However, the NEU, led by general secretary Daniel Kebede, has rejected the 2.8% offer as “unacceptable” and “unfunded”.

Instead, the union is calling for a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise – although it has not put a figure on the proposal it would like to receive.

Mr Kebede has also criticised the government for suggesting schools could pay for it by making “efficiencies” in their budgets, saying schools have already faced years of cuts.

‘Anger and fear about what is happening in education’

The government will only finalise its offer once it has received the recommendations of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), which makes recommendations on the pay of school teachers in England.

The DfE has not yet published the STRB recommendations or its decision on whether to accept them – but it is expected that this will happen imminently.

A source on the executive told Sky News there was “real clarity about the impact of an unfunded pay award”, adding: “There is a lot of anger and fear about what is happening in education.”

They said any potential strike action, if approved, would be targeted at the first half of the autumn term and so would be unlikely to affect student exams.

In an indicative electronic ballot that was launched at the beginning of March, 93.7% of NEU respondents turned down the proposed 2.8% pay rise, while 83% of teachers said they would be willing to take industrial action to secure a better deal.

However, the result was achieved on a turnout of 47.2% – lower than what would be needed if the union’s formal ballot is to be successful.

Under trade union legislation, the NEU must achieve a turnout of 50% in both the teacher and support staff ballots. Some 40% of those eligible to vote must back strike action for it to go ahead.

The government has promised to repeal the 2016 Trade Union Act but has delayed the process until after electronic balloting has been introduced.

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The source on the NEU executive said: “The decision of the NEU conference was that schools can’t afford an unfunded pay rise – we are already seeing redundancies in London and that situation is going to be dire next year.

“Schools are suffering an improvement and retention crisis, morale is bad and teaching is not high on the list of well-paid graduate jobs.”

They said that as well as pay, teachers were also concerned about the new Ofsted inspection system and the impact AI could have on de-skilling the profession and job losses.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “With school staff, parents and young people working so hard to turn the tide on school attendance, any move towards industrial action by teaching unions would be indefensible.

“Following a 5.5% pay award in hugely challenging fiscal context, I would urge NEU to put children first.”

The NEU has been approached for comment.