On Monday, September 15th, Tory MP Danny Kruger became the first sitting shadow minister to defect to Reform UK—saying the Conservatives he was leaving were “over as a national party.”
The decision by the MP for East Wiltshire, southwest England, was revealed at a press conference in central London. The defection represents a coup for the populist Reform leader Nigel Farage. Kruger will head Reform’s efforts to prepare for government, Farage said.
Reform now has five seats in parliament, against 399 for the governing Labour Party and 119 for the main opposition Tories. According to Kruger,
The Conservative Party is over … it is over as a national party, and over as the principal opposition to the Left.
The East Wiltshire MP was once considered to be an important voice in developing Tory policy while serving as shadow minister for work and pensions. “We are planning change on a scale that the system has not seen since the modern civil service was created in the 19th century,” he declared:
I hoped after our defeat last year that the Conservative Party would learn the obvious lesson. But no, we’ve had a year of stasis and drift and the sham unity that comes from not doing anything bold or different or controversial.
The defection comes as another blow to Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, who has been unable to capitalise on the unpopularity of the governing Labour party.
Badenoch responded by saying that her party was “not going to get blown off course by these sorts of incidents”.
Reform leads the ruling Labour and main opposition Conservative parties in national polling, indicating Farage’s party would win a general election if it was held tomorrow—although the next one is likely to be another four years away.
