Danny Kruger takes Reform back to full strength – so who’ll be next to quit? | John Crace

Nigel Farage has always been keen on a “one in, one out” policy. At the last election, Reform won five seats. Two MPs, Rupert Lowe and James McMurdock, have since left the party over artistic differences – ie, falling out with Nige – and have gained only one in the cold-hearted Sarah Pochin. Now they are back to their full complement. Five, it turns out, is the magic number

MP Danny Kruger says Tory party ‘is over’ as he defects to Reform

The MP Danny Kruger has defected from the Conservatives to Reform UK, declaring the Tory party “is over” and Nigel Farage is the “new custodian” of conservatism and the political right’s “last hope” of governing Britain.Kruger, who represents East Wiltshire and previously served as political secretary to Boris Johnson, said: “The Conservative party is over. Over as a national party, over as the principal opposition to the left.”His defection comes weeks after the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, said Tories who “want to jump ship” to Reform UK are “welcome to do so”.In a statement announcing his switch, Kruger accused the Tories of clinging to “defunct institutions”, and said they have been operating under “sham unity” since their general election defeat last year which has left them in “stasis”

Top Starmer aide resigns over explicit Diane Abbott messages in further blow to PM – UK politics live

Keir Starmer has been hit by a fresh Downing Street resignation. Paul Ovenden has resigned as director of strategy at No 10 over revelations, first published by the Mail, that in 2017 he made sexually explicit comments about Diane Abbott in a private email.Ovenden was a Labour party press officer at the time.In his story for the Mail, Dan Hodges reports:The Mail understands that Mr Ovenden had exchanged emails with a former colleague in 2017 in which he retold a story about a game of ‘shag, marry, kill’ involving Ms Abbott he had overheard.He then graphically recounted the conversation in which two women described performing sex acts on Ms Abbott, 71, the veteran MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington

Senior Starmer adviser quits over offensive Diane Abbott messages

A senior adviser to Keir Starmer has resigned after it was revealed he sent inappropriate messages about the Labour MP Diane Abbott eight years ago.Paul Ovenden quit on Monday as the prime minister’s director of political strategy after details emerged about a sexually explicit WhatsApp conversation he had in 2017.His resignation is another setback for the beleaguered prime minister, who has also lost his deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, and his Washington ambassador, Peter Mandelson, to separate scandals in the last two weeks.The messages show Ovenden and a friend joking about a party that Ovenden had attended the night before at which attenders had joked about having sex with Abbott, the Labour MP who is the longest-serving woman in the Commons.The pair exchanged messages in which Ovenden recounted an explicit conversation in which people at the party had played a game of “shag, marry, kill”

Keir Starmer: I’d never have appointed Mandelson if I’d known what I know now

Keir Starmer has broken his silence about sacking Peter Mandelson as US ambassador over the envoy’s close friendship with the financier Jeffrey Epstein.Amid mounting questions about his political judgment, Starmer was asked why Lord Mandelson was appointed in the first place, given that the Labour peer’s friendship with Epstein had long been public knowledge.Starmer said: “Had I known then what I know now, I’d have never appointed him.”The prime minister backed Mandelson in the Commons on Wednesday, but sacked him a day later. He was aware when he stood up at prime minister’s questions on the Wednesday that further revelations were due to be published about Mandelson, because the ambassador had already acknowledged that “very embarrassing” messages would surface

Donald Trump’s UK state visit arrives at awkward moment after Mandelson exit

For Donald Trump, the priority was to avoid any distractions. But as he arrives for his second state visit to the UK – an unprecedented honour for a US president – the crisis engulfing Keir Starmer’s government threatens to overshadow the proceedings.The circumstances of that crisis are especially awkward. Peter Mandelson was unceremoniously sacked as the UK’s ambassador to Washington on Thursday after emails were published in which he had urged his friend Jeffrey Epstein to fight for early release from prison in 2008.For Trump, whose own friendship with Epstein has exposed him to damaging scrutiny, including from his own support base, there is no subject he wants to revisit less