Don’t get me wrong, I know Danny Kruger. I like Danny Kruger. He’s the sort of man politics pretends to produce but almost never does: good-hearted, diligent, eloquent, properly grounded.
A statesman who could talk to a Wiltshire farmer and a Washington senator with equal conviction. In short, everything an MP should be.
So when Danny says he is defecting to Reform, carrying the “new torch of conservatism” across the chamber, I listen. And when he pledges to help Nigel Farage prepare a government-in-waiting, I take him seriously. Reform has, on paper, gained both ballast and brilliance.
But here’s my hesitation… no, my dread. Reform may think it has recruited a noble knight, but in the small print of that contract it may also have opened the back door to some of the most dangerous figures in British politics.
Yes, I’m talking about Dougie Smith. And if you’ve read Nadine Dorries’s books, you’ll know precisely why the hairs rise on the back of my neck at the mere mention of his name. She paints him as a shadowy fixer, a man who never stands for election but always hovers by the machinery, tugging levers you never see. Dominic Cummings lurks in that same constellation, as does Michael Gove… men of sharp intellect, yes, but Machiavellian instincts. They sniff power like sharks scent blood in the water.
Danny, for reasons that remain opaque to me, appears very close to Dougie. I’ve heard suggestions (though I can’t independently verify them) that they may even have stood in each other’s weddings or acted as godfathers to each other’s children. Whatever the truth of those rumours, what seems clear is that their bond is strong. And when I once confronted Danny on this, railing against what I saw as Dougie’s role in hollowing out the Tory Party, Danny fired back on a heated call: “You know, Claire, Dougie isn’t as bad as you make out.”
Not as bad? Maybe not to Danny. But to the Conservative machine, to the very possibility of a healthy right-of-centre politics, I still believe Dougie Smith’s influence has been corrosive. The Conservative Party candidates’ department? The Lib Dem infiltration of Tory ranks? The hijacking of the party from the inside? In my view, those bear his fingerprints.
And now Nigel Farage has, perhaps unwittingly, opened the door to him.
Reform thinks it is fighting Labour and the establishment. But in inviting Danny in, I fear they may also have admitted the men who plot in shadows, who hedge their bets, who would happily topple both Tory and Reform if it meant installing their own chosen vessel. Don’t be fooled: in my opinion, Dougie doesn’t do loyalty, only leverage.
Look carefully and you’ll see the same patterns: Kemi lifted, Kemi undermined. Jenrick sidelined. Money flows redirected and allegiances shifting. A source has alleged that Dougie still enjoys a handsome income from Tory HQ, while his wife, Munira Mirza, is reportedly involved in training Tory MPs. If true, it would suggest the old machinery never really went away.
But Reform’s great danger is this: Nigel is smart, Nigel is tough, but Nigel is not omniscient. He thrives on instinct, not infinite chess. Against operators like Cummings and Smith, who think in twenty-move endgames, instinct may not be enough. Things will go swimmingly at first… polls rising, defections mounting, the crowds cheering. And just when the crown glitters within reach, the machinery will turn, the leaks will start, and Nigel may find his party no longer his own.
Mark my words: I firmly believe from here on in Reform risks being run, in spirit if not in name, by Dougie Smith.
You don’t have to believe me. You can call it paranoia, conspiracy, whatever you like. I don’t care. Time has a way of exposing who really writes the script.
As for me, I have no desire to be an MP. I don’t yearn for the green leather benches or the hollow pomp of Westminster. My only ambition is to save this country, so I will say it as I see it. I also believe the Conservative Party is not dead… it has been captured. But it can still be redeemed. With the right leadership, with Rob Jenrick at the helm, it could yet return to sanity and purpose.
At the same time, don’t take your eyes off Ben Habib and Advance UK. Ben is rare in politics: decent to his core, sharper than most of the Commons put together. He’s not just in the race, he’s the new thoroughbred no one sees coming. And if Elon’s backing ever falls his way, then all bets are off.
This isn’t politics anymore, it’s Shakespeare with a touch of Hollywood. Betrayals, shadows, plots within plots. The torch of conservatism is indeed being passed, but beware who holds the matches, and who keeps the fire.
By Claire Bullivant
