Oh dear. For a while now, Danny Kruger has established himself as one of the more troublesome Tory MPs from No. 10’s perspective. The 2019 MP served as political secretary to Boris Johnson before entering parliament. Yet in recent months he has tended to adopt positions that cause Downing Street a headache. He helped found the ‘New Conservatives’ – a Tory caucus largely made up of 2019 intake MPs in red wall seats. While Kruger’s seat is very much in the blue wall category, he has warned repeatedly that Sunak must keep the 2019 election coalition of voters alive.
This morning, Kruger was one in a group of ‘New Conservatives’ to have breakfast with the Prime Minister as Sunak tried to convince them to back the Rwanda Bill. Alas for Sunak, the charm offensive failed when it came to Kruger. Along with fellow 2019-er Miriam Cates, he has penned a post-breakfast Telegraph op-ed saying the Rwanda bill will not let the UK ‘take back control’ (though according to Kruger’s former boss Boris Johnson that had happened back in 2019):
‘As MPs elected on a mandate to ‘Take Back Control’ we can’t vote for a Bill that fails to establish the superiority of our democratically-elected UK parliament over foreign courts. We sincerely hope the Government comes forward with amendments that will address the practical limitations of the Bill and the principle of parliamentary sovereignty. It is in the best interests of our country to resolve these issues once and for all.’
Now he has declared to the House: ‘I regret we have got an unsatisfactory Bill. I can’t undertake to support it tonight’.
Little wonder then the Prime Minister is calling back ministers from trips abroad in a bid to scrape through tonight…
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