Reform UK is known for having a fair number of fractious, cranky, and argumentative individuals, so the timing of Tory MP Danny Kruger, a composed and devout man, switching sides comes at a beneficial moment for Nigel Farage.

While Farage enjoys being a prominent and contentious character in politics, Kruger is quite the opposite. He is thoughtful, deeply religious, and maintains a scandal-free image. A former colleague of Kruger mentioned last week, ‘I won’t miss any more of Kruger’s moralizing lectures, thank you very much.’

Kruger, who is married with three children and supports traditional family values, would have opposed the same-sex marriage bill in 2013 if he had been serving as an MP then.

His children, aged 15, 13 and 12, rarely watch TV with their Eton- and Oxford-educated father, who is a self-confessed bookworm.

In the living room of his expansive three-story home in Ravenscourt Park, West London, worth over £2.5 million, it’s clear that family life takes priority. There are children’s school books around, yet a TV is notably missing.

‘I don’t really watch it,’ Kruger says, which feels remiss given that his mother, Dame Prue Leith, is the star of The Great British Bake Off.

Not that he ever watches the show. ‘I’d rather read a book,’ he says, in this, his first newspaper interview as a newly minted Reform MP. 

But he adds proudly: ‘I’ve taken the children to see ten Shakespeare plays in the last year. They really enjoy it.’

Also present is Pebble, his yapping Jack Russell, who nips my finger to show who’s boss. This is the same Pebble who landed his owner in hot water with Westminster magistrates in 2021. As a puppy, he caused a stampede by chasing a herd of 200 deer in London’s Richmond Park, earning Kruger a £700 fine for having his dog off the lead.

‘I was distracted with the children,’ he says now in mitigation, ‘and the dog ran off. He does like a lot of attention.’

While Kruger speaks regularly to his mother, who adopted his Cambodian sister Li-Da when she was 16 months old, they were on opposite sides of the assisted dying debate. 

Kruger, with his strong Christian faith (he converted when he met his wife Emma in 2002), was an outspoken opponent of the Bill, which is currently being fought over in the House of Lords.

Dame Prue, however, sees the issue through the prism of her brother David’s death. Riddled with bone cancer in his 60s, he was in ‘screaming agony’ she revealed in an interview last year. She said her son ‘would have a different attitude’ had he seen ‘his uncle die or his father die’. Nonetheless, she insisted, their ‘long discussions’ are ‘never bad tempered, I must say… because we are very fond of each other’.

Kruger – who, despite his shock of grey hair, looks younger than his 50 years – confided in her before his defection to Reform. ‘My mother stays out of party politics,’ he says. ‘But she is very supportive.’ As have been his friends, family and ‘even those who don’t vote Conservative let alone Reform’.

His defection was a seismic moment for the light blue arrivistes. Far from being a former Tory nursing a grudge and a P45 – the likes of whom seem to be drawn to Reform – Kruger is a sitting MP and the first to switch over in this Parliament.

As one of the Conservatives’ most celebrated thinkers, his exit is a serious blow to party leader Kemi Badenoch, who gave him the shadow work and pensions brief, but not a Shadow Cabinet position – perhaps something she now regrets.

He is disarmingly frank about his new party’s image problem (a sign that the whips have yet to get their claws into him).

‘Many people don’t trust us,’ he says. ‘They see this charismatic but Marmite figure of Nigel Farage who has never held ministerial office. They think Reform is just a protest vehicle. 

‘Nigel is seriously thinking he could be Prime Minister and is conscious of the legitimate concerns some have about a new party comprised of a bunch of untested people who have never been ministers and may not be up to the job. 

‘We have to work hard as a new party to show we have the capability.’

Since the election, the party has swelled its ranks by 13 former Tory MPs. He sees a danger there. 

‘Reform must not become a life raft for people who have fallen out with the Tory Party. But Reform is a party of the Right, let’s not pretend otherwise. It also has appeal to the Left, because there is a strong patriotic tradition there, which Labour have deserted.’

The defection had been brewing over the summer, he says: ‘Nigel came to the house in August when we agreed.’ Astonishingly the plan never leaked but Kruger plays with a straight bat. The announcement of his switch could have been timed for the eve of the Conservative Party conference to cause maximum political disruption. But, he says, ‘I was clear I was not willing to play games to disrupt their conference’.

He won his East Wiltshire constituency in last year’s General Election with a 5,000 majority. And Reform came a distant fourth in the Tory stronghold, so being re-elected next time is not a foregone conclusion. 

Encouragingly for Kruger, the local Tory association membership has slumped by a third since 2019, while the Reform branch has more than 1,000 members. 

‘My biggest personal regret is the pain that the good people who worked for me in the constituency are now feeling,’ he says.

The significance of his move can’t be understated for the Tories, who are currently sputtering in national approval polls at a mere 17 per cent. 

Kruger has been one of their own since Gordon Brown was Prime Minister. As speechwriter for David Cameron when he was Leader of the Opposition, Kruger wrote the much derided ‘hug a hoodie’ address. 

He also worked for the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank and was political secretary to Boris Johnson for six months. 

‘He should not have been brought down by Partygate,’ he says. ‘The public should have opined on it.’

‘Opined’ is typical of a man not blessed with the common touch, but Farage didn’t bring him over to connect with Red Wall voters.

Last summer, Kruger ran the leadership campaign of Robert Jenrick, who was runner-up to Badenoch. Would he still be a Tory if Jenrick was leader?

‘I hoped Rob would hit the ground running if he won by re-organising the party and adopting interesting policy positions,’ he says. 

‘It was the right plan. I respect Kemi’s strategy to go quiet until the public are ready to listen and to do some serious thinking. But the Tory Party has disappeared over the last year.’

Does his departure mean the next election will be terminal for the Tories? ‘The Conservative Party is over,’ he told me. ‘Conservatism is not.’

As he starts work this week on Reform’s policy programme, Kruger’s philosophy is clear: Tax incentives for families, a safety net that prioritises responsibility over dependency, scrapping inheritance tax for family farms, prioritising British values in schools and huge cuts in immigration.

On the latter – brought into sharp focus by Labour’s humiliating failure to ‘smash the gangs’ and stop the small boats – he says: ‘We have a plan. 

‘Every illegal migrant will be put in detention centres and deported within days. I have to start planning where the detention centres will happen.’

Pressed on whether he had identified some sites, he hesitates before saying firmly: ‘No. I definitely don’t have any places in mind. Yet.’

Bemoaning the lack of leadership in the past two decades, he says: ‘We haven’t had a Prime Minister arriving in office with the intention of transforming the country since Tony Blair. And he certainly did that with his Human Rights Act.’ 

The 1998 legislation incorporated the European Convention on Human rights (ECHR) into domestic law for the first time. ‘We will overturn it,’ Kruger insists.

While the Tories are expected to announce a partial withdrawal from the ECHR at their party conference next month, Reform will withdraw in its entirety. 

The 1951 Refugee Convention, which prohibits countries from returning a refugee to a territory where their life or freedom could be threatened, could go the same way. 

‘The party has a 70-page policy document on illegal migration. They have already put in the hard work,’ he says.

On law and order, he wants the police on the streets, not on computer screens. 

Whether the police should be routinely armed with guns or Tasers will be part of his policy review, but Kruger, who with wife Emma co-founded the charity Only Connect, which aims to stop offending, is firm on the need for new jails: ‘We need to build new prisons and expand the capacity of existing prisons.’

Before his children were born, he had former convicts living in his home, including sex offenders and men convicted of violent offences. 

‘Rehabilitation is a key to cutting reoffending,’ he says. His wife still runs the charity.

The BBC is also in his sights.

Will the BBC Charter be renewed? ‘I don’t know.’ What of the £174.50 annual licence fee? ‘There are big questions about whether it is justifiable,’ he says.

He also has strong views on social media: ‘We have a major problem on our hands. We are conducting a mass experiment in real time on the brains of the nation’s children. 

‘We have to balance the right to free speech with protection for young people. Reform are not libertarian cowboys.’

In his own home, he admits that smart phones have been an issue. While the older two children have them, ‘my 12-year-old doesn’t and won’t. It is to be decided when he does’.

Unashamedly ambitious, Kruger insists he’s not been offered a ministerial job by Farage nor asked for one. What about No 10?

‘If as an MP you don’t think you can possibly do the job of Prime Minister you shouldn’t be an MP,’ he says, which will wrinkle the nose of his new boss. 

‘Most of us have the capacity. But you have to earn the right to do it. The public expect their MPs to earn respect, which is why Nigel is head and shoulders above other leaders because of his consistent and resilient pursuit of his vision.’

Asked to name his favourite Tory leader, he plucks a surprising name from the air. ‘In modern times I think Iain Duncan Smith was the best Prime Minister we never had.’ 

The ‘quiet man of politics’, ousted as leader in 2003, became a man after Kruger’s work-and-pensions heart as the architect of Universal Credit.

As I prepare to leave I ask again about Prue Leith.

‘She’s been famous ever since I can remember,’ he says. Dame Prue founded Leiths School of Food and Wine in 1975 – not that her kitchen prowess has rubbed off on her son.

‘I’m not a good cook,’ he admits. ‘I can stick something in the oven. I did do scrambled eggs this morning for the children. Does that count?

‘Mum tried to teach me, so I can at least chop onions extremely well. I think she rather gave up on me.’

Still, official functions at No 10 are privately catered.