Danny Kruger takes Reform back to full strength so who'll be next to quit? | John Crace

"Nigel Farage has always been keen on a one in one out policy. At the last election, Reform won five seats. Two MPs, Rupert Lowe and James McMurdock, have since left the party over artistic differences ie, falling out with Nige and have gained only one in the cold-hearted Sarah Pochin. Now they are back to their full complement. Five, it turns out, is the magic number."

"For once, the email from Reform insisting that Monday's press conference would contain an important announcement was more or less accurate. Normally all you get is a parade of new councillors or a policy that is never going to happen. But this time Reform had gone all in. A room in a luxury Mayfair hotel. And Nige talking deadly earnestly about preparing for government. A job so important, it couldn't be entrusted to any of his current half-witted derelicts, such as Richard Tice or Lee Anderson. They were really only there as cosmetics. To make up the numbers."

"Step forward the latest defection. Not a half-witted idiot like Nadine Dorries or the sequinned Andrea Jenkyns but someone on the outer edges of being taken seriously. It goes without saying that Danny Kruger is deeply weird but he is or was until this morning a Conservative frontbencher. One of Kemi Badenoch's shadow ministers. No wonder Nige looked pleased to introduce him. If also a little wary. Slightly deferential. Danny won't be nearly so easy to push around as the rest of the Reform MPs. Perhaps too, Nige might be a little twitchy of taking another Tory. He doesn't want to make a habit of taking any old Conservative MP who has been spooked by the polls and decided to jump ship. If Reform ends up looking like a care home for the Tories then it may begin to lose support quite rapidly. Danny is quite good at sounding sincere. He likes to consider himself a deep thinker. A man with"

Nigel Farage favors a one-in-one-out approach to parliamentary recruitment. Reform UK held five seats, lost two MPs, and gained Sarah Pochin, restoring the five-member total. A Mayfair press conference announced Danny Kruger's defection from the Conservatives to Reform. Farage emphasized preparing for government and sidelined figures like Richard Tice and Lee Anderson as cosmetic additions. Danny Kruger arrives as a former Conservative frontbencher and Kemi Badenoch shadow minister, described as eccentric but more independent. Farage worries that recruiting many Conservatives could make Reform appear like a Tory refuge and risk losing support.

Read at www.theguardian.com