Danny Kruger defects to Reform: 'Politicans now slip from one political skin to another'
Conservative MP Danny Kruger has become the first sitting Tory to defect to Reform UK, dealing a significant blow to Kemi Badenoch's leadership as she attempts to rebuild the party. The East Wiltshire MP, who called the Conservatives "over" and branded their 14-year government a "failure", will now lead Reform's preparation for power as Nigel Farage eyes Downing Street.
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In brief:
- Danny Kruger, MP for East Wiltshire and former shadow work and pensions minister under Kemi Badenoch has defected to Reform UK, announcing the move alongside Nigel Farage in a press conference.
- Kruger, who has been a Tory member for 20 years, branded the Conservative party a “failure” and said, “the Conservatives are over’’.
- The News Agents say that Kruger “epitomises the journey the centre right and now the right have been on,” representing the push towards ‘family values’ on the right of politics and a “fusion of the Anglosphere US and UK, right”.
What’s the story?
Conservative MP Danny Kruger has become the first sitting Conservative MP to defect to Reform UK.
Kruger, an MP for East Wiltshire and previously shadow work and pensions minister under Kemi Badenoch, announced the move alongside Nigel Farage at a press conference on Monday (15 September).
He told the crowd “the Conservatives are over’’, dubbing the previous Tory government a “failure” for contributing to social decline, lower wages and higher taxes during their time in power. “
I do have a bit of a problem with people saying successive governments have failed the people when you have been a part of the one that was in power for 14 years,” Emily Maitlis points out on The News Agents.
While Kruger said leaving the party he had been a member of for 20 years was “personally painful”, he added he was ‘’honoured’’ to be joining Reform UK.
Farage has chosen Kruger to lead a task force that will help Reform “prepare for power,” as the party continues to work towards making the Clacton MP the next Prime Minister.
The defection has caused implications for the Conservative Party - Kruger was previously a high-profile member of the Tories, known for his intellectual influence.
The move leaves Kemi Badenoch with a huge disadvantage at a crucial time, as she tries to rebrand and rebuild.
What’s The News Agents’ take?
Kruger’s defection to Reform epitomises the “changing and mutating face of the right of British politics,” Lewis Goodall says.
The MP was the speech writer for David Cameron when he was Prime Minister, penning his infamous 2006 ‘hug a hoody’ speech, which saw the Tory government at the time embracing a more progressive attitude after years of a Labour government.
“This was a Tory leader having to respond to the fact that the social consensus, the political consensus, was anchored in the centre left, rather than the hard right, as we're going towards now,” Lewis says.
Since then, Kruger, an evangelical Christian who is against the right to die and has previously said that pregnant women don’t have an absolute right to bodily autonomy, has been on a journey.
“He does fit into a Reform type space, from that perspective,” Emily says.
Lewis adds that Kruger is an example of the “fusion of the Anglosphere US and UK, right,” noting that he talked about the role of conventional family values in society during a 2023 conference organised by a right-wing American think tank.
“He does represent this shift,” Lewis says.
“The shift, which was taboo for a long time on the right of British politics, although certainly not in American politics, puts the questions of morality, family values, all this sort of stuff, right back at the centre of right-wing thinking.”
But Emily questions whether Kruger is jumping ship because he genuinely doesn’t like what the Tories stand for anymore, or because he thinks there is no Conservative party left for him to stand in.
“Danny Kruger told us that he wasn't doing it for his own sake, because his seat in East Wiltshire was very safe,” she adds.
“Curious that he hasn't decided to have a by-election then."
With polls working in Farage’s favour, he has said that Kruger will lead the transition in preparing the party for entering government.
“He is known to his constituents,” Emily says.
“Maybe if nobody's looking too carefully, they go; ‘Oh, well, we like Danny Kruger. It doesn't really matter what the party is’.”
But she adds; “How many more people can just slip out of one political skin into another with absolutely no by-election, without people going; ‘hang on a second, that is not what democracy looks like’.”