Robert Jenrick has been sacked from the shadow cabinet and suspended from the Conservative party after Kemi Badenoch said she was presented with “irrefutable evidence” that he was planning to defect from the party.

The shadow justice secretary was Badenoch’s leadership rival.

“I have sacked Robert Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removed the whip and suspended his party membership with immediate effect,” Badenoch said in a statement.

“I was presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible to his shadow cabinet colleagues and the wider Conservative party.

“The British public are tired of political psychodrama and so am I. They saw too much of it in the last government, they’re seeing too much of it in THIS government. I will not repeat those mistakes.”