The rancorous relationship between Robert Jenrick and his former colleagues in the Conservative party was aired on live TV on Friday when an MP who had backed his leadership bid accused him of abandoning their friendship.

Victoria Atkins, the shadow environment secretary, revealed live on the BBC’s local election programme that she had not spoken to Robert Jenrick since he defected to Reform in January.

Atkins, who said in 2024 that she believed Jenrick was the leadership candidate who had “a really interesting story to tell” to younger voters, appeared so angry in the encounter that she could not look him in the eye.

“Rob has not spoken to me since he left the Conservative party in the way that he did,” she said. “And I considered us to be very good friends. And so it has been a great personal loss for me, as well as a professional one.”

Atkins suggested Jenrick’s behaviour meant he and Reform UK could not be trusted. She added: “How one conducts oneself is important. This is a message that will continue until the general election, that if people are asking the voters for trust, then that has to be genuine.”

Jenrick tried to move the discussion away from his personal conduct to the Conservatives’ record in government. He said: “The Conservative party is not trusted because it didn’t do what it said it was going to do.

“The Conservative party broke the most fundamental trust with the British public, because it said it was going to secure our borders. It did the opposite. It was open season.”

Atkins interrupted Jenrick by saying: “You were immigration minister,” and, looking skyward, added: “Immigration rose to its highest levels.”

Jenrick responded: “I resigned because I was so appalled by what I’d seen.”

Later, Jenrick was asked to respond to the personal accusation that he not spoken to his old friend for four months. He said: “I don’t personalise things. That is not the way I conduct myself.”

Since his defection, the relationship between Jenrick and his former party has been unusually bitter. After the leader, Kemi Badenoch, accused him of lying, he released private texts of insults sent to him from a Conservative official.

In one message from 2024, the Tory chief whip, Rebecca Harris, said there was “a special place in hell” for him.