The Conservative Party lost Robert Jenrick “not on ideology, but personal ambition”, Kemi Badenoch has told her backbench MPs in their first parliamentary gathering since the senior Tory defected to Reform UK.

Ex-shadow justice secretary Mr Jenrick defected to Nigel Farage’s political party last Thursday, describing Britain as “broken” and blaming the Tories and Labour for the country’s troubles.

His exit came after Mrs Badenoch sacked him from her frontbench and accused him of plotting to leave in a way intended to cause as much harm as possible to the Tories.

Over the weekend, he was followed to Reform by Romford MP Andrew Rosindell, taking Mr Farage’s number of MPs up to seven.

Speaking at the first gathering since the defections of the 1922 Committee, which is made up of all sitting Tory MPs, Mrs Badenoch sought to move on from the losses.

“We lost someone not on ideology, but personal ambition,” she told backbench Tories on Wednesday evening.

Mrs Badenoch added: “But we want to win. The question is what are we winning for? That’s the story we want to tell.

“I want to renew and rebuild the Conservative Party – not just be the PM.”

She also challenged some of Reform’s narrative about the defections from her party: She appeared to hit out at Mr Farage’s suggestion that his party represented the “genuine centre-right of this country”.

The Tory leader said: “We are not moving leftwards, we are the party of the right and will always be a party of the right.

“We have to push back, don’t let other people speak for us.”

Amid Reform’s portrayal of the country as “broken Britain”, Mrs Badenoch said: “There is a lot to fix in this country.

“A lot of stuff isn’t working, a lot is broken, but the whole country isn’t broken beyond repair.

“We need to show hope, aspiration and that we can fix problems – we are brave enough to take tough decisions, and we are competent enough to deliver.

“Where Reform are negative about our country, we will be fuelled by positivity.”

Elsewhere, she appeared to criticise the Labour Government, telling her MPs: “People don’t want incremental managerialism. They want a vision.”

Tory MP leaving the parliamentary committee room appeared positive about the 30-minute address by their leader.

One senior Conservative suggested Mr Jenrick’s defection, rather than demoralising, had “galvanised” the party, which was now focused on its future electoral fortunes.

Another told the Press Association Mr Rosindell was among the Tory MPs who had been “on watch” for defection for a long time, but insisted the party was now “more united than ever”.

Mr Jenrick made his first appearance in the Commons chamber alongside Reform colleagues on Wednesday.

He sat at Prime Minister’s Questions between Lee Anderson and Danny Kruger, both of whom also left the Conservatives for Reform UK while they were sitting MPs.