Tory MP Danny Kruger defects to Reform

Kemi Badenoch has suffered a major blow after sitting Tory MP Danny Kruger defected from to Reform. The Wiltshire MP has been put in charge of Nigel Farage’s preparations for government, in a major coup for the insurgent party that has been dominating the opinion polls.

At an event on Monday morning, Kruger announced that his former party “is over”.

This is the first time that a sitting MP has defected to Reform in this Parliament, bringing its total number of MPs back up to five – after losing Rupert Lowe and James McMurdock.

Farage said that the former Conservative MP is taking on an “enormous responsibility” within Reform.

In his speech announcing the defection, Kruger said that while there are “good and decent people” in the Tory party, and that the move is “personally painful”.

“There have been moments where I have been very proud to belong to the Tory party,” he said, highlighting Brexit and Boris Johnson’s 2019 majority as highlights.

“But those were exceptions to the rule. The rule of our time in office was failure. Bigger government, social decline, low wages, high taxes, and less of what ordinary people actually wanted.”

He added: “Britain is not broken, but it is badly damaged. And so, in this crisis, something has got to give.”

Conservative party is ‘over’

In reference to his former party, Kruger said “those lost voters aren’t coming back”, and that “the Conservative party is over as a national party”.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch told GB News that the defection shows “there are quite a lot of people who are distracted by Westminster politics, rather than what is actually going on in our country”.

Badenoch argued that it is the Conservatives who have set the political agenda, securing the resignations of Angela Rayner and Lord Mandelson.

Kruger managed Robert Jenrick’s campaign for the Conservative leadership in 2024, but the former immigration minister ultimately lost out to Kemi Badenoch.

He was among the guests invited to JD Vance’s barbecue in the Cotswolds earlier this summer, alongside Reform UK supporter and Christian academic Dr James Orr and Strictly contender Tom Skinner.

He has also played a leading role in opposition to the assisted dying bill, which is passing through parliament and has faced criticism over amendments and the terms of debate.