Danny Kruger defects to Reform UK from Tories, with Farage putting him in charge of preparing party for government
Nigel Farage has announced that Danny Kruger has defected to Reform UK from the Tories. Kruger, MP for East Wiltshire, is a leading social conservative, and co-chaired the New Conservatives group in the last parliament with Miriam Cates.
Farage said that Kruger would be in charge of preparing the part for government.
Danny Kruger at the Reform UK conference Photograph: Reform UKShare
Updated at 06.18 EDT
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Kruger says, even if Robert Jenrick took over as Tory leader, he does not think they could now overtake Reform UK
Kruger said that that he supported Robert Jenrick for the Tory leadership, and he thought the party would be doing better now with Jenrick as leader. Jenrick wanted to take the fight to Labour immediately, he said; Kemi Badenoch thought the party needed to spend time working on a new policy platform.
But he said, if Jenrick took over now, “I don’t think he could succeed in overtaking Reform”.
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Farage accuses police of not taking death threats against him on TikTok seriously
At the start of the press conference Farage said that he had received explicit death threats on TikTok. He said that he had reported them to the police, but had now been told that they were not taking any action.
Asked how worried he was by these, Farage said that he knew Charlie Kirk well. Getting death threats himself was “not a very pleasant experience”, he said.
So I did challenge the police to do something, but they’ve decided this does not meet the threshold. Gosh, imagine if I make I made some joke about the trans community, probably be in real trouble.
And that is at the heart of two-tier Britain, two-tier policing, two-tier justice and two-tier Keir, and it’s one of the reasons the flags are going up all over this country.
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Updated at 06.43 EDT
Kruger says he wants to ensure that if Reform UK wins the election, the civil service will implement real change.
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Kruger says he was ‘very disappointed’ by Boris Johnson’s record in government after Brexit
Q: Danny Kruger was political secretary to Boris Johnnson. But Reform UK is blaming him for letting immigration get out of control.
Kruger says he was political secretary to Johnson before the 2019 election. He is “enormously proud” of what Johnson did in terms of getting Brexit done.
He goes on:
I was very disappointed with what followed, firstly, with the failure to properly grip the system of Whitehall itself, which Brexit was only a prelude to. We needed to restore the government to the people. That was what people voted for in 2019 and I think we’ve failed to do that, particularly during Covid.
And then secondly, most obviously, with the wave of immigration that the government oversaw.
And while, as a Conservative MP in a sense, I bear some responsibility for that, in practice, I was arguing strongly against the degree of both legal and illegal migration that the government was presiding over.
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Q: What do you think Musk meant when he talked about overthrowing the government?
Farage says Musk has been “chucking abuse at me now for six months”. He says journalists want him to hit back, because that would make a good headline. He is not going to do that, he says.
I’m not going to abuse Musk or Tommy Robinson or anything. We’re going to get on with building what we’re trying to build.
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Q: As an Old Etonian, can you really understand the experience of ordinary people?
Kruger describes that as a “cheap shot”.
And he points out that for 10 years he has run a charity working with ex-offenders.
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Updated at 06.34 EDT
Q: Danny, you say Britain is not broken. Do you realise Farage says it is?
Farage says Kruger is “more bullish” than he is.
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Farage says vast majority of people attending Tommy Robinson rally in London were ‘good, ordinary, decent people’
Nigel Farage and Danny Kruger now now taking questions.
Q: Do you expect more Tories to defect?
Kruger says the Tory party is not dead. It is just over as the main opposition. He says he does not think it will ever recover.
He says he would like to see other Tories follow him.
Farage says he keeps things under wraps. No one knew Kruger was defecting today.
He says the Tories have “zero chance” of winning the next election?
Q: What is your response to the Elon Musk?
Farage says:
As for Saturday, I think the vast majority of people that turned up were good, ordinary, decent people who are very, very concerned about what’s happening in this country,
I’ve noticed that the wave of flags that was that started about three weeks ago, going up around the country, far from subsiding, from what I can see this weekend, is accelerating massively.
There is, and it is a collective two fingers up to a British establishment that they feel utterly betrayed by in every single way.
As for the Musk comments, Farage says that Musk is generally rude about him.
He says it would be good to have some explanation from Musk as to what he meant by “fight”. He goes on:
We are radical, but we’re not revolutionaries.
If the fight that Musk was talking about was about standing up for our rights of free speech, if it was about fighting in elections to overcome the established parties, then that absolutely is the fight that we’re in.
And the reason you asked the question, I think the context of the way the word was used left a degree of ambiguity.
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Updated at 06.31 EDT
Kruger says Tories were ‘failure’ in office, they are finished as national party, but conservatism ‘isn’t over’
In his speech at the Reform UK press conference, Danny Kruger said that he was leaving the Conservative party because he had concluded it was over as a party. But conservatism wasn’t over, he said.
He said:
I have been variously a member, an activist, an employee of the Conservative party for over 20 years, and I have many friends in the party, many good and decent people, which is why it is so personally painful for me to be doing what I am doing today.
There have been moments when I have been very proud to belong to the Tory party. In 2010 I was inspired by the Big Society, by schools reform and welfare reform. I was thrilled by Brexit and by what Boris Johnson pulled off in 2019 but those were exceptions to the rule.
The rule of our time in office was failure, bigger government, social decline, low wages, high taxes and less of what ordinary people actually wanted.
And now our country is entering the most profound set of crises in my lifetime, under a government even worse, far worse, than the one it replaced.
Crisis in the economy, crisis at the border, crisis in our streets, crisis in our military, crisis for young people. Yes, we are still a great country, and there are good reasons that so many migrants want to come here, but there are also reasons so many entrepreneurs and young people want to leave. Britain is not broken, but it is badly damaged. And so, in this crisis, something has got to give.
I hoped, after our defeat last year, that the Conservative party would learn the obvious lesson that the old ways don’t work, that centrism is not enough, that real change is needed.
But now we have had a year of stasis and drift and the sham unity that comes from not doing anything bold or difficult or controversial, and the result is [clear] in the polls, and those lost voters are not coming back. And every day, more and more people are joining them in deserting the party that has failed.
And so this is my tragic conclusion. 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 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 … The new torch is already alight, already brighter than the one it is replacing, held aloft in firm and confident hands.
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Updated at 06.26 EDT
Danny Kruger defects to Reform UK from Tories, with Farage putting him in charge of preparing party for government
Nigel Farage has announced that Danny Kruger has defected to Reform UK from the Tories. Kruger, MP for East Wiltshire, is a leading social conservative, and co-chaired the New Conservatives group in the last parliament with Miriam Cates.
Farage said that Kruger would be in charge of preparing the part for government.
Danny Kruger at the Reform UK conference Photograph: Reform UKShare
Updated at 06.18 EDT
Musk calls Ed Davey ‘craven coward’ after Lib Dem leader accuses him of ‘dangerous interference in our democracy’
Elon Musk has called Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, a “craven coward” in a post on social media responding to Davey’s letter denouncing the speech Musk gave to the far-right rally in London. Davey responded with mockery.
In an interview on the Today programme, Davey was asked about the size of the far-right rally in London on Saturday, said to be attended by 110,000 people. Asked if mainstream parties could attract a crowd that sized, Davey replied:
I think people support Liberal Democrat views more than they support the views of Tommy Robinson.
Actually, I think our views on improving health and care, on dealing with the cost of living, our views on the environment, our views actually on having a closer relationship with Europe, our views on calling out Donald Trump and people like Elon Musk – I think the vast majority of people agree with us, not the extremes.
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Updated at 06.23 EDT
Reform UK is holding a press conference in London, promising “a major announcement”.
It is about to start. There is a live feed here.
Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage holds press conference – watch liveShare
Updated at 06.05 EDT
Jacqui Smith, the skills minister, has dismissed the significance of Richard Burgon predicting that Keir Starmer might be gone within months. (See 9.37am). Asked about the comment in an interview with BBC Breakfast, Smith said;
Richard Burgon has never supported this prime minister. He actually had the whip removed from him for a period of time because of his failure to support the Government, so the fact that he now thinks the prime minister should go is not actually new news.
Asked if she thought Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham would do a better job as leader, she replied: “No. I think the prime minister is doing a good job.”
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Mandelson should lose Labour whip in Lords if it is shown he was not ‘frank’ about Epstein relationship in vetting, MP says
Some of those briefing on behalf of No 10 have suggested that Peter Mandelson misled officials about the extent of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein before his appointment as ambassador to the US, although ministers have not said that explicitly. On Westminster Hour last night Helen Hayes, the Labour chair of the Commons education committee, said that if it shown that Mandelson was not “frank”, he should lose the Labour whip in the Lords.
She said:
I felt really devastated about Peter Mandelson. I spend a lot of my time as chair of the education select committee thinking about children, about safeguarding, about questions of abuse and how we support victims. I think there was a failure to centre the victims of Jeffery Epstein within that judgement [appointing Mandelson as ambassador] …
I share the view that he shouldn’t have been appointed, I share concerns about what was known.
I think there is a question about how frank he was in the original vetting process. If he was not frank about that association, then that should be dealt with and his ability to speak as a Labour peer should be taken away from him.
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UK and US line up string of deals to build modular nuclear reactors in Britain
Labour’s plans for a massive expansion of nuclear power have been given a boost with a string of transatlantic deals for new modular reactors announced before Donald Trump’s visit, Gwyn Topham reports.
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Smith sidesteps question about whether Mandelson should lose Labour whip in House of Lords
The publication of the Mandelson/Epstein emails has led to calls for Peter Mandelson to lose the Labour whip in the House of Lords.
In her Today programme interview, asked if Mandelson should lose the whip, Jacqui Smith, the skills minister, replied:
I think what Peter Mandelson said was disgusting. I am angry about it.
Peter Mandelson is currently on a leave of absence from the House of Lords and therefore doesn’t have the Labour whip. What happens in the future will be up to the whip.
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Starmer did not see ‘detail’ of Mandelson’s emails to Epstein until after PMQs, skills minister Jacqui Smith says
Jacqui Smith, the skills minister, was the voice of the government on TV and radio this morning. Asked about the Tory questions for Keir Starmer about the Peter Mandelson emails, Smith said Starmer did not personally see the relevant emails until Wednesday afternoon.
She told the Today programme:
What happened on Tuesday was that media sources came forward to the Foreign Office with extracts from the emails. The Foreign Office asked questions of Peter Mandelson.
It was on Wednesday, and in fact not until after prime minister’s questions, that No 10 and the prime minister saw the detail of those emails – as I’ve just outlined the particularly egregious things that were said and exposed in those emails.
And when Keir Starmer saw those, he took action to remove Peter Mandelson as our ambassador.
When it was put to Smith that No 10 reportedly knew at the start of last week that those emails showed that Mandelson had suggested Epstein’s first conviction was wrong and should be challenged, Smith repeated her point that, although the Foreign Office was aware of the emails on Tuesday, Starmer himself did not see the details until Wednesday afternoon.
In an interview with LBC, Nick Ferrari told Smith that, before the election, Keir Starmer was asked by the Financial Times what he felt about Mandelson saying in Epstein’s house after Epstein’s first conviction. Smith replied:
We did know, of course, about Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. It was a relationship that Lord Mandelson had been clear that he regretted and that he’d apologised about.
What we didn’t know was the depth of that relationship, the nature of it, the fact that he was trying to coach Jeffrey Epstein to avoid the consequences of his actions, the impact that that understandably, therefore, had on the victims of Epstein’s terrible crimes.
And as soon as that became clear to the prime minister, he asked that he removed Peter Mandelson as our ambassador.
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Starmer facing fresh questions over Mandelson emails to Epstein
Last night the Conservatives released the text of an open letter sent to Keir Starmer from Alex Burghart, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, with five questions about the Peter Mandelson emails to Jeffrey Epstein. Here are those five questions.
1. On Monday, Bloomberg contacted Peter Mandelson with excerpts from the Mandelson/Epstein Files. These were then sent to the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and Downing Street. Were you aware before Prime Ministers Questions at midday on Wednesday, 10 September of the existence of the emails? Had you been briefed on their contents?
2. On Wednesday at 0809, in an interview with Harry Cole, Mandelson admitted that there was ‘a lot of traffic, correspondence changes between us [Mandelson and Epstein] absolutely. And we know those are going to surface’. You then told the House of Commons you had ‘confidence’ in Mandelson and ‘full due process’ was followed. Did you ask your staff at any point prior to appearing in the House of Commons for what more information might surface? Did you receive a briefing ahead of Prime Minister’s Questions regarding Mandelson and Epstein, and covering the Bloomberg emails?
3. Ministers have claimed new information came to light. What information did you find out as a result of reading the Bloomberg emails that you did not already know, and which was not already in the original vetting document?
4. It is understood that your chief of staff was in touch with Mandelson on Tuesday, whilst the permanent secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth was awaiting a response to official inquiries. When did your chief of staff speak with Mandelson this week and what did he discuss with him?
5. Will you appear before the House of Commons, including any committee? Will you direct your chief of staff and other officials including the cabinet secretary and the permanent secretary at the Foreign Office to give evidence? And will you publish all Mandelson/Epstein files held by the government, including details of vetting conducted by the Cabinet Office and your chief of staff, so there can be full transparency on this crucial matter?
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Starmer urged to condemn Elon Musk’s ‘fight back or die’ speech to London rally as Labour MPs question his leadership
Good morning. All governments face crises; something goes wrong, often someone gets sacked, and then they move on. Very occasionally, there is a proper leadership challenge, normally culminating in a vote. But there is also something in between, the permacrisis, where ongoing criticism of the leadership drowns out most other party/government activity, with no resolution. The Theresa May and Boris Johnson premiership were in permacrisis for months or years. After the last week, Keir Starmer is close to being stuck in this version of political purgatory too.
There are various strands to the Labour turmoil story, and I will unpack them as the day goes on, but here is a quick summary based on the state of play this morning.
Starmer is under intense pressure to explain what he knew ahead of PMQs last week about the emails from Peter Mandelson in which Mandelson strongly backed Jeffrey Epstein at the time of his first child sex offence conviction. The Tories have demanded an explanation in response to reports that officials did know full details before PMQs, even though Starmer subsequently justified defending Mandelson on Wednesday before sacking him on Thursday on the grounds that new information (ie, the full details of the emails) only came to light on Wednesday night. This claim has made the Mail splash.
Mail splash Photograph: Daily Mail
This morning Kemi Badenoch posted this on social media.
If the PM really believes in accountability, he would stop hiding, face Parliament, publish the Mandelson/Epstein files and tell the truth about what he and his Chief of Staff knew and when.
It’s time to deliver the “transparency revolution” he promised. No more excuses.
The Mandelson/Epstein affair is a self-contained crisis. But, coming so soon after the resignation of Angela Rayner, and coming after a summer when No 10 was decisively beaten in the media attention air war by Nigel Farage and Reform UK, it has tipped the parliamentary Labour party into a panic about the Starmer leadership. That led to this on the Today programme this morning.
Lots of MPs are looking to the elections next May, the opinion polls suggest it’s going to be a complete disaster unfortunately. I think it’s inevitable that if May’s elections go as people predict, and the opinion polls predict, then I think Starmer will be gone at that time.
It feels like we are years and years into an unpopular government, rather than a year into a government that’s just got rid of the Conservatives. We’re losing votes to the left, we’re going to be losing seats to the right.
We face a real threat for the first time in our country’s history of what I would consider to be a far-right extremist government – it’s the prime minister’s duty to stop that happening. You can only do that by delivering for people who want real change, and if you can’t do that, then of course, there’s going to have to be change at the very top.
Burgon is one of the few Corbynites left in the PLP, and he is not representative. But, as Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot reported in a very thorough long-read at the weekend, serious conversations are now happening in the parliamentary party about how Starmer could be replaced.
But there is some evidence that Starmer is fighting back. Yesterday, showing a bit more willingness to take on the far-right over flags than we saw over the summer, Starmer condemned the use of the St George’s flag by the far-right, anti-immigration protesters who attacked the police in London on Saturday.
Starmer is now being urged to go further.
Starmer is being urged to condemn Elon Musk for his “fight back or die” speech to the far-right rally in London. The Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has issued this challenge to the PM in an open letter published on social media.
Letter to Starmer Photograph: Ed Davey
In January, when Musk was using posts on his social media platform X to accuse Starmer on an almost hourly basis of being “complicit in the rape of Britain” (because of grooming gangs), Starmer just ignored the billionaire, far-right provocateur. But at that point Musk was friends with Donald Trump, and a key figure in his administration. Now that Musk has fallen out with the president, Starmer may feel more comfortable denouncing him. We should be hearing from him later today, but this morning a minister has criticised Musk.
Jacqui Smith, the skills minister, has condemned Musk for his speech to the far-right rally in London on Saturday. Musk told the crowd that “violence is coming” and that “you either fight back or you die”. Asked if she condemned those words, Smith told the Today programme:
Absolutely I do. Those words were wrong and they were dangerous.
We’re a country that believes in the right to protest and the right to free speech, but we’re also a country that recognises and celebrates our diversity. That’s what our flag is actually about.
We will not have on our streets people being intimidated on the basis of their race or their background.
Smith was referrring to the fact that the union jack is a composite flag, made up of flags from three nations, thereby celebrating union, and the multi-national character of the UK.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in Hampshire.
11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a press conference, where the party says there will be “a major announcement”.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Shabana Mahmood takes questions in the Commons for the first time in her new role as home secretary,
Afternoon: Keir Starmer is expected to record a pooled broadcast interview.
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Updated at 04.54 EDT
