The Done-in Kruger Effect

Danny Kruger wants us to believe his defection to Reform UK is an act of principle. In reality, it looks like an act of convenience; as though he believes the Tories are simply ‘done in’, too fatigued to make any difference to their fate. He spent years as part of the Conservative machine that hollowed out the country, and now he declares the party “finished” as though he had nothing to do with its collapse. The hypocrisy is staggering.

For the Conservatives, this is humiliation. A once-dominant party is now bleeding MPs, incapable of keeping its ranks together. Every defection is another public confirmation that the Tories are no longer a serious political force. They’re not fighting to recover; they’re rotting from within.

Reform, however, should be careful what they celebrate. Each new Tory arrival chips away at the outsider brand they’ve built. You can’t claim to be the scourge of the establishment while filling your benches with ex-establishment men. What looks like momentum risks turning them into nothing more than Tories in exile — the very people they’ve spent years blaming for Britain’s decline.

And Labour would be deluded to treat this as a sideshow. Kruger’s leap signals something bigger: Reform mean business. They are not a pub-room protest movement anymore. They’re drawing MPs, mobilising crowds, and feeding off the same anger that filled the streets in London last weekend. Those marches, once fringe, are growing. Reform are positioning themselves as their political home. That should worry anyone in government.

Kruger’s defection is bad news for everyone. For the Tories, it proves their slow death. For Reform, it muddies their identity.

For Labour, it confirms that the populist right is no longer shouting from the sidelines but organising for power. They should ignore that at their peril.