Danny Kruger, a sitting Conservative Member of Parliament and former senior adviser, announced on Monday that he was leaving the Conservative Party to join Reform UK, saying the Conservatives were “over” as the principal opposition. His defection to Nigel Farage’s party, where he will lead a Preparing for Government unit, raised concern within Conservative ranks that further departures could follow.
Kruger told reporters he had informed the Conservative chief whip on the morning of his move and had been in talks with Reform in recent months. He said he had hoped the party would change after last year’s defeat but concluded that “we’ve had a year of stasis and drift” and that lost voters were not coming back. “This is my tragic conclusion: the Conservative party is over, over as a national party, over as the principal opposition to the Left,” he said.
Reform leader Nigel Farage hailed Kruger’s decision in a Daily Mail column, calling him “the first sitting Conservative MP to come over to Reform in this parliament” and predicting more defections, while urging potential arrivals to “support our political principles” and to add “something real” to the party rather than seeking to protect their own positions. Kruger’s move restores Reform to five MPs, the same number it held after the general election, though two members have left the party in the past year.
The defection represents a blow to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who has faced internal dissent since becoming party leader. Kruger described her strategy as aiming “to disappear from public view.” Badenoch defended her leadership, saying on the BBC last week that those who disliked her approach were “welcome to leave,” and on Monday argued that if people departed for other parties the Conservatives would find others who agreed with their policies.
Senior figures reacted with a mix of regret and caution. Conservative MP Robert Jenrick, who worked with Kruger in past campaigns, said he was “very sad” but disagreed with the decision. Former Brexit negotiator Lord Frost said many right-leaning MPs might now consider leaving, calling it possible the party was “game over” for some. Kruger’s arrival at Reform follows the recent defection of former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, who declared on joining Reform that “the Tory party is dead.”
Kruger, the son of television cook and presenter Prue Leith, has been a visible figure on the Conservative right. He served as chief speechwriter to David Cameron and later as political secretary to Boris Johnson, and he was campaign manager for Robert Jenrick in last year’s leadership contest. He has been associated with the Popular Conservatives group and led opposition to an assisted dying law. Earlier in the year he had publicly criticised Reform, telling Parliament in July that a Reform government would “spend money like drunken sailors” and calling the party “a destructive force.”
In his address on Monday, Kruger said conservatism itself remained “vibrant” but that its leadership and electoral vehicle had shifted to Reform. He said that the Conservative brand had become “toxic” because of its record over 14 years in office and that the “flame [of conservatism] is passing from one torch to another.”
Farage said Kruger would head a Preparing for Government Unit within Reform, a role designed to present the party as ready for power. The move is likely to intensify pressure on the Conservatives as they seek to stabilise their parliamentary caucus and maintain a clear identity as the main right-of-centre opposition.
The defection also adds to questions about the political dynamics on the right of British politics, where tensions between the Conservative leadership and more hardline figures have widened since the last general election. Kruger’s decision follows months of internal debate within the Conservative Party over direction and strategy, and it comes as Reform seeks to broaden its appeal ahead of the next electoral contests.
Kruger said he had made the decision after lengthy reflection and that it had been “personally painful” to leave the party he had belonged to for two decades. He will now sit as a Reform MP while the Conservatives examine the implications of his departure and consider whether further moves by senior colleagues might follow.