New Conservatives co-chair Danny Kruger said Reform UK was ‘mostly valid’ in its criticism of the Tory Party and that he was ‘very, very worried’ about its growing support
A Tory MP has said Reform UK’s attacks of the Conservative Party are correct, in a damning leaked recording.
Danny Kruger said Reform UK, which was founded by Nigel Farage as the former Brexit Party, was “mostly valid” in its criticism of the Tories. Reform UK leader Richard Tice has said he wants to oust Rishi Sunak’s party at the next election and “punish the Tories for breaking Britain”.
Mr Kruger, who is co-chair of right-wing faction the New Conservatives alongside Miriam Cates, told a meeting of local party members in Salisbury last week that he was “very, very worried” about Reform UK’s growing support. According to recent YouGov polling, the party is on track to get 16% of the vote, with the Tories on 21% and Labour on 40%.
The Tory MP for Devizes, whose mum is Bake Off judge Prue Leith, said Reform UK was a “destructive force” that was “absolutely killing” his party. According to the recordings of Mr Kruger, which were leaked to the Telegraph, he said: “I don’t think there’s any chance of working together [with Reform] because they’ve ruled that out very, very recently and publicly, and I think genuinely their ambition is to replace us. They want to destroy the Conservative Party.
“They think the obstacle to Conservatism is the Conservative Party. And I kind of get what they’re saying. Because in many ways it is, we’re not a very conservative party in lots of ways. But I don’t agree with them. I think the answer to the Conservative Party’s problems is to change the Conservative Party and to make it better, which is what we’re trying to do.
“But I am sympathetic to their general critique. I don’t really believe in them, I don’t really like them to be honest. I don’t think they stand for genuine conservative ideas, I think they’re just a destructive force. I think it will be a tragedy if they did end up replacing us. But their general critique of what’s wrong, I think, is mostly valid. And the people who are attracted to them, I understand why and we have to have major respect for them, not insult them.”
Tory MPs have become even more shaky about the rise of Reform UK after Lee Anderson defected to the party following his suspension by the Tories for comments made about Sadiq Khan. The former Conservative deputy chairman lost the whip after he suggested the London Mayor is controlled by “Islamists” and had “given our capital city away to his mates”.
In the leaded audio, Mr Kruger blamed the Tories for him leaving the party. “So, I’m a friend of Lee Anderson who defected to them,” he said. “He was in my faction. And I regret… I think it’s our party’s fault that we lost him. I mean he’s to blame as well, obviously, I wouldn’t have done it. But we shouldn’t have let him go. We should have held on to him. And we need to get people who vote like that back.” Elsewhere in the meeting Mr Kruger joked that the Tory brand had been “tarnished” when asked if his re-election campaign would focus on his personal beliefs over the party.
Mr Tice has previously said he could be “absolutely categoric that we are not doing any deals with the Tories… under any circumstances”. “I’m optimistic that the country quite rightly wants to punish the Tories for breaking Britain, because that is what they want to do. I think the country wants to punish them, to oust them and replace them,” he told a press conference in January.
