Another day, another Reform press conference. Today the central London meet-up saw former Conservative MP-turned-defector Danny Kruger take to the podium to set out his plans to prepare the party for government. As James Heale wrote for Coffee House, Kruger wants to reduce civil servant numbers, end leases on a selection of Whitehall premises and better empower parliament. But he also turned his attention to his own (new) party too – setting out something of a vision of Reform’s evolution.
‘I’m going to start by risking a metaphor,’ Kruger warned his crowd. He went on:
People keep asking me how I feel having left the sinking ship of the Tory party, and I feel pretty good. We are riding high. The wind is in our sails. I’m on a ship that is actually going somewhere. And, of course, as we all know, Reform is a bit of a pirate ship led by a buccaneering, charismatic captain, an ill-disciplined crew – but a powerful ship with a dangerous broadside, a terror to its rivals.
Might Kruger’s eloquent description of his, er, crew mates be a polite nod to Sarah Pochin’s latest gaffe? His parliamentary colleague – who won the Runcorn by-election in May – has come under fire recently after she agreed with a TalkTV caller about the demographics of advertising. The politician said the viewer was ‘absolutely right’ to complain, saying: ‘It drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people.’ She added that ‘your average white person’ is ‘not represented anymore’. On Monday, Nigel Farage condemned the remarks as ‘ugly, clumsy’ and fumed that he was ‘very unhappy’ with Pochin – though stopped short of calling her comments racist and insisted he did not believe her intention was racist.
The new Reform MP may have also been referencing the recent drama in Kent county council, where five of its own councillors have been booted out over a ‘lack of integrity’. The development follows a leaked video showing council leader Linden Kemkaran swearing at her colleagues ahead of a council meeting. Today Yusuf defended the palaver in his flagship council, saying: ‘It’s quite right for a Reform council to be scrutinised. But I can’t remember the idea that Labour and Tory leaders were asked about any number of utterly shambolic councils that they presided over.’
Kruger spoke today of the task that faces Reform over the next three and a half years:
Now, the job of Zia and Nigel and Richard and me and our colleagues is to help turn this pirate ship into His Majesty’s Royal Navy ship, ready to enter the King’s service and serve our nation.
Strong stuff. Now the challenge is for Reform UK to turn its rhetoric into delivery – but if polls like today’s YouGov survey persist, Farage’s party will at least have the tide of public opinion behind it. Stay tuned…
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