Danny Kruger is the Reform UK MP for East Wiltshire, having first been elected for the predecessor seat of Devizes at the 2019 general election.

In the 2024 general election for the new East Wiltshire constituency, Kruger stood as a Conservative candidate. He received 16,849 votes (35.7%). The Labour candidate received 12,133 votes (25.7%), and the Liberal Democrat candidate secured 8,204 votes (17.4%). Kruger was duly elected with a majority of 4,716.

The East Wiltshire constituency covers a large rural area of the county, including the towns of Marlborough and Tidworth, villages across the Pewsey Vale, and parts of Salisbury Plain with its significant military presence. The seat was created for the 2024 election, largely replacing the Devizes constituency which had been held continuously by the Conservative Party from 1924 until Kruger’s defection to Reform UK in September 2025.

Political Career

Kruger defected to Reform UK from the Conservative Party in September 2025. He was the first sitting MP to defect to the party since the 2024 general election and immediately appointed as head of Reform’s new unit preparing the party for government.

Kruger’s defection was unveiled at a Reform press conference.

Announcing his defection, Kruger said: “The Conservative Party is over, over as a national party, over as the principal opposition to the left.

“But I am not despondent because conservatism is not over. It’s never been needed more. And actually, it’s never been more vibrant. Because the failure of the Conservative Party has created space for an alternative. The flame is passing from one torch to another.”

Kruger was soon followed by former Conservative cabinet ministers Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman in defecting to Reform UK.

In a subsequent letter to his constituents, Kruger said his former party was “rightly and naturally punished for its record” at the 2024 general election.

He added: “I was elected in 2019 to ‘get Brexit done’ and then – as Boris always stressed – to move beyond Brexit and fix the underlying problems with our country.

“We did the Brexit bit, but then we failed. Most of all, we failed to control our borders and reduce taxes as we had promised. Many of our communities have experienced huge and unwelcome change due to mass migration.”

Kruger served as a shadow minister for work and pensions from November 2024 to September 2025 on the frontbench appointed by Kemi Badenoch. He previously served as shadow minister for defence from July 2024 to November 2024 on the caretaker/interim frontbench appointed by Rishi Sunak as leader of the opposition.

During the Conservative Party’s tenure in government, Kruger served briefly as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the ministerial team at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). In June 2022, Kruger publicly declared their loyalty to the prime minister, Boris Johnson, ahead of a Conservative “no-confidence” in his leadership. The vote was triggered by discontent within the parliamentary party following the “partygate” scandal and the publication of the Sue Gray report. While the prime minister ultimately won the vote, the scale of the rebellion against him, with 148 of his own MPs voting to remove him, severely weakened his authority and presaged his resignation the following month.

Kruger then resigned as PPS to Michael Gove as levelling up secretary in July 2022 as part of the mass walkout of ministers that precipitated Boris Johnson’s downfall as prime minister. It came after Gove was dismissed for alleged disloyalty. At the time, Kruger posted to social media: “Very sorry indeed to hear Michael Gove has been fired by the PM. As I told No 10 earlier today it should be the PM leaving office. I am resigning as PPS at [DLUHC].”

He served on the work and pensions committee from March to October 2025 and served the Treasury select committee from November 2022 to May 2024.

Kruger is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for beyond pills, Christianity in the Holy Land, eating disorders, faith and society and Unesco world heritage sites.

Kruger delivered his maiden speech on 29 January 2020 during a debate on policing and crime.

In it, he said: “My constituency is in a beautiful part of the country, but we face deep social challenges and many of the problems that are familiar to rural communities everywhere. We need better funding for our health service, for education, for police and for rural transport, and we need a new deal for our farmers.

“In the brave new world we are entering, in which rural businesses will face global competition and new environmental responsibilities, we need to remember our own responsibilities to the stewards of our countryside. I will be their champion.”

He added: “I spent 10 years as the chief executive of a project I founded with my wife Emma that works in prisons and with young people at risk. It was the hardest job I have ever done, and I worked in some very tough places.

“We often failed, but we were always close to the people we tried to help. Never bureaucratic, and never treating people as statistics or – a phrase I do not like – service users, we saw them as people whose lives had gone wrong and whose lives, but for the grace of God, could have been ours.”

Before entering parliament, Kruger had significant experience in and around Conservative politics.

Kruger served as political secretary to Boris Johnson during the first months of his premiership (July to December 2019) and was previously a speechwriter for David Cameron when he was leader of the opposition. He is credited with writing the speech

the phrase “hug a hoodie” used by Cameron to argue that society should understand and engage with troubled youth, instead of just punishing them.

In 2013, Kruger criticised Cameron for reputedly dropping the “big society” ethos he adopted in opposition.

Political Views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Tory leadership 2024: Kruger supported Jenrick’s candidacy in the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Rishi Sunak following the party’s defeat in the 2024 general election.

Jenrick, a former immigration minister, positioned himself on the right wing of the party, advocating for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). He emerged as an early frontrunner, topping the first two parliamentary ballots. After reaching the final two, he was defeated in the membership vote by Kemi Badenoch, receiving 41,388 votes (43.5%) compared to Badenoch’s 53,806 (56.5%).

Tory leadership 2022 (I): Kruger supported Suella Braverman’s candidacy in the Conservative Party’s July-September 2022 leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Boris Johnson following the mass exodus of more than 60 frontbenchers.

Braverman, the attorney general, announced her candidacy before Johnson had officially resigned. She positioned herself as a staunch Brexiteer on the party’s right wing, calling for the UK’s withdrawal from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). She was eliminated in the second parliamentary ballot on 14 July after receiving 27 votes.

Kruger subsequently shifted his support to Liz Truss’ candidacy. Truss, the then-foreign secretary, campaigned on a platform of sweeping tax cuts. After finishing second in the final parliamentary ballot with 113 votes, she won the subsequent vote of the party membership with 81,326 votes (57.4%) and was appointed prime minister on 6 September

Tory leadership 2022 (II): Kruger supported Rishi Sunak’s candidacy in the Conservative Party’s October 2022 leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Truss after just 45 days in office, following the financial and political tailspin triggered by her “mini-budget”.

Sunak, the former chancellor, had finished second to Truss in the previous contest. Unlike the summer contest, this election featured an expedited process requiring each candidate to secure at least 100 nominations from MPs to proceed. Sunak, having emerged as the clear frontrunner, was declared leader of the Conservative Party unopposed on 24 October.

Factional identity and party tradition

During his tenure as a Conservative MP, Kruger was identified with the social conservative wing of the party. An evangelical Christian, he has called for a return to Christian values in public life.

At the May 2023 National Conservatism Conference, Kruger said that a safe and successful society depends on heterosexual marriage, with couples staying together “for the sake of the children”.

New Conservatives: Kruger was a leading figure in the New Conservatives, a faction within the Conservative Party that emerged in the aftermath of the 2019 general election. The group was originally made up of 24 Conservative MPs elected primarily after the Brexit referendum. However, Kruger was one of only three members to retain their seats at the 2024 general election (alongside Gareth Bacon and John Hayes).

Upon the group’s launch in July 2023, it published a “10-point plan” to reduce net immigration to the UK to below 226,000 a year – which was seen as a challenge to the authority of then-prime minister Rishi Sunak.

Kruger co-chaired the group.

Speaking at the launch event, Kruger’s fellow co-chair Miriam Cates warned that “addiction” to mass migration for the economy is like “turning on the hot tap to warm up your bath when it’s already overflowing and flooding your home.”

Rwanda rebellion (amendments): In January 2024, Kruger was one of around 60 Conservative MPs who supported amendments to the government’s Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill. The amendments, proposed by Conservative MPs Sir Bill Cash and Robert Jenrick, sought to strengthen the proposed legislation by limiting the ability of individual asylum seekers to prevent their deportation to Rwanda, under the terms of the government’s flagship removals scheme. The rebellion was composed of Tory MPs on the right of the party.

Rwanda rebellion (third reading): In January 2024, Kruger was one of 11 Conservative MPs to vote against the Sunak government’s Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill at its third reading. The bill, a key component of the government’s strategy to deter small boat crossings, was passed by the House of Commons by 320 votes to 276. The Tory MPs who voted against it, including former home secretary Suella Braverman and Jenrick, argued that it did not go far enough in closing off legal challenges from asylum seekers facing deportation.

Common sense group: In the 2019-2024 parliament, Kruger was associated with the Common Sense Group (CSG) of socially conservative MPs. The CSG’s principal focus was to combat what it described as “woke” ideology. In 2021, it published a manifesto, Common Sense: Conservative Thinking for a Post-Liberal Age, which took aim at the Equality Act 2010, the supreme court, British broadcasters and environmentalist direct action group Extinction Rebellion. Veteran Conservative MP Sir John Hayes served as the group’s chair.

In a 2020 open letter published in the Daily Telegraph, MPs of the Common Sense Group said the faction had formed to “speak for the silent majority of voters tired of being patronised by elitist bourgeois liberals whenever issues such as immigration or law and order are raised.”

Tax pledge Tories: In November 2023, Kruger signed the “tax pledge” – which committed supportive MPs to not vote for any further increases in the overall tax burden. The initiative was associated with the Conservative Growth Group (CSG), a faction within the party that advocated for lower taxes and supply-side reforms to stimulate economic growth. The group was formed by allies of the former prime minister Liz Truss. The “tax pledge” was spearheaded by Jake Berry, who served as Conservative chair in Truss’ short-lived government.

Brexit and Europe

Kruger supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union (EU).

Customs union vote (2025): In December 2025, Kruger voted against the UK-EU Customs Union (Duty to Negotiate) Bill. The bill, introduced under the ten-minute rule procedure by Liberal Democrat Europe spokesperson Al Pinkerton, sought to mandate the government to enter into negotiations with the European Union to establish a bespoke customs union.

Assisted dying

Kruger was one of the most high-profile opponents of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, voting against it at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

He served on the public bill committee which scrutinised the legislation from January-March 2025.

Addressing MPs as part of the bill’s second reading debate in the commons, Kruger said: “If I voted for this bill, I would have on my conscience many more people whose voices we cannot hear — the people who would be vulnerable as a consequence of the huge changes that this Bill would introduce in our society and in the NHS.”

Speaking second after the bill’s sponsor, Kruger went on to warn of the creation of a “state suicide service”.

He added: “I mentioned at the start of my speech the voices of those we cannot hear: the frail and elderly and the disabled. As we are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, let us do better than this bill. Let today be not a vote for despair, but the start of a proper debate about dying well, in which we have a better idea than a state suicide service.”

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Kruger voted against a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Foreign policy and security

IPAC: Kruger is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) – an international, cross-party network of legislators from democratic countries focused on relations with the People’s Republic of China. The alliance, established on 4 June 2020, the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, was formed to unite “lawmakers worldwide, promoting democracy and addressing threats to the rules-based and human rights systems posed by the rise of China.”

Before Politics

Born in 1974, Kruger was born in Westminster to South African parents. His mother is the well-known chef, restaurateur, and broadcaster Prue Leith DBE. His father was writer and property developer Rayne Kruger.

He was educated at Eton College. He studied history at the University of Edinburgh and later obtained his doctorate at the University of Oxford.

Before his roles in politics, Kruger worked as a journalist, including time as the chief leader writer for the Daily Telegraph.

He also served as director of research for the centre-right think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS). He is the author of the book Fraternity: Politics beyond Liberty and Equality.

In 2006, Kruger and his wife Emma founded the youth crime prevention charity Only Connect, which works with people in prison and those recently released. He received an MBE for his work in 207.

Personal Life

Kruger is married to Emma and they have three children. He has credited Emma for his conversion to Christianity.

In June 2021, Kruger was fined after reportedly admitting a charge of causing or permitting an animal to chase or worry another animal in a Royal Park when his Jack Russell puppy chased deer in London’s Richmond Park.

Trivia

Kruger is the son of chef and broadcaster Prue Leith.

In 2023, they fronted a Channel 4 documentary debating assisted dying called Prue and Danny’s Death Road Trip. Leith is a prominent advocate of assisted dying, urging MPs to “vote for change” ahead of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill’s second reading.

The Channel 4 documentary was billed as follows: “Prue Leith supports assisted dying. Her son, Danny Kruger MP, is against it. Can a trip to North America, where assisted dying is legal, resolve their differences?”

Commenting on their familial disagreement ahead of the assisted dying bill’s third reading in June 2025, Leith told BBC Newsnight: “I have great respect for Danny and of course I love him… I’m very sorry he doesn’t agree with me.”

Kruger told the same programme: “I regret my mum isn’t seeing sense and come round to my point of view but I understand why.”

https://x.com/BBCNewsnight/status/1936176839883460806

https://x.com/BBCNewsnight/status/1936179825300959273