Today’s defection of sitting Tory MP Danny Kruger is the biggest blow dealt by Nigel Farage to Kemi Badenoch yet, and it’s not clear she will recover.
Mr Kruger was unveiled as Reform’s newest MP, and also given the task of preparing the party for government.
He brings serious weight to the party, their only MP with experience inside Government having served in top roles under David Cameron and Boris Johnson.
The popular MP is steeped in Tory history, and 10 years ago it would have been unthinkable that someone like Mr Kruger would belong to any party other than the Conservatives.
Early life
He is the son of Bake Off star presenter Prue Leith and restaurateur Rayne Kruger, born in 1974 in Westminster.
The Assisted Dying debate has seen him take a stand against his mother who by contrast has been a passionate advocate in favour of Kim Leadbeater’s proposed change to the law.
Privately educated at Eton College, the ultra elite boarding school that has provided Britain with a whopping twenty Prime Ministers, before studying history at Edinburgh and Oxford.
He became the director of research at the Centre for Policy Studies, the centre-right think tank co-founded by Margaret Thatcher, before joining the Conservative Party’s elite policy unit.
After a brief foray into journalism at the Daily Telegraph, he returned to politics in a fruitless attempt to unseat Tony Blair as the Tory candidate for Sedgefield in 2005.
Who did he work for?
Mr Kruger then became an indispensable member of David Cameron’s team, becoming the Tory leader’s speechwriter in 2006, responsible for Mr Cameron’s ‘hug a hoodie’ speech.
He was awarded an MBE in 2017 after leaving Mr Cameron for a number of jobs in the charity sector, before returning to politics at the pro-Brexit Legatum Institute think tank.
After backing Brexit, he became a special advisor in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in 2018.
However his biggest break came in August 2019, when he became the political secretary to Boris Johnson.
The job involved acting as Mr Johnson’s key troubleshooter.
The top role landed him a safe Conservative seat, entering parliament in the 2019 election for the then-Devizes constituency.
Mr Kruger was viewed as one of the Tories’ most serious thinkers, driven largely by his christian faith.
After resigning from Government in 2022, Mr Kruger backed Suella Braverman in the subsequent leadership election.
In the 2024 leadership election, Mr Kruger backed Robert Jenrick.
He was then appointed Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions by Kemi Badenoch, a role he served in from November 2024 to today.
Family life
Mr Kruger is married to a former teacher, with whom he has three children.
In 2021 the Tory MP was fined £120 after his puppy caused a 200-strong deer stampede in Richmond Park, promising to be more careful in future.