Ian Forsyth/Getty Images
Robert Jenrick revealed his daughter’s middle name at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham this week – and it’s taken a few people by surprise.
The unexpected revelation took place on the main conference stage, where Jenrick was the third of four candidates for the party leadership to face an hour-long interview with Christopher Hope, of GB News, in front of 4,000 delegates in Birmingham.
Discussing the news that Sir Keir Starmer managed to secure free tickets to Taylor Swift for his daughter, the Tory leadership hopeful commented:
“I’ve got three young girls, and they’ve all been reading the papers, watching the news, and one of them said to me the other day: ‘Does this mean we’re going to get free tickets to Taylor Swift?’”
Hope then asked Jenrick about one of the girls’ middle names, something Jenrick had previously told him, to which he replied:
“Margaret Thatcher,” before swiftly clarifying that he meant just “Thatcher”, not both names.
“She was born the year that Margaret Thatcher died,” Jenrick said of Sophia, 11.
“As you know, I respect strong women. In fact, everyone is female at my house. I’ve got three daughters, my wife and two dogs, who are both female. I thought it was a good way of reminding her of a great prime minister.”
But people were quick to point out on social media that ‘Margaret’ might have been a more suitable name than ‘Thatcher’, which feels like quite a fair
Related: The British public’s preferred choice for next Tory leader is… Don’t care
