Kruger defects from Conservatives to Reform to lead ‘preparations for government’

Danny Kruger, MP for East Wiltshire, has defected from the Conservative Party to Reform UK as the party’s new head of “preparing for government”.

Kruger, who has been Tory MP for East Wiltshire since 2019 and – until today – has served as a shadow welfare minister under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership, declared in a press conference that: “The Conservative Party is over.”

He becomes the first Tory MP to defect to Reform since the general election, taking the party up to five MPs.

“There have been moments when I have been very proud to belong to the Tory party,” Kruger said, but added: “The rule of our time in office was a failure.”

“Bigger government, social decline, lower wages, higher taxes and less of what ordinary people actually wanted.”

He said that although he had “great regard” for Badenoch, the Tory party has a “toxic brand”.

Kruger claimed to have “no idea” whether other Conservatives MPs are in talks with Reform UK about defecting to the party, but said he hopes his former colleagues “follow me”.

A former aide to David Cameron and former political secretary to Boris Johnson, Kruger ran Robert Jenrick’s campaign during the last leadership election.

But he now thinks that not even the shadow justice secretary can save the Tories from Reform: “I wish that he had won, because I think he would have done things differently. I think he would have taken the fight to Labour immediately, rather than Kemi’s strategy, which is a respectable one, by the way.  It’s understandable why she chose to do it… but I think now it is too late and and so I wish all my former colleagues well on a personal level. But as I say, I think the Conservative Party is unable to deliver for conservatives.”