Is Nigel Farage a complete and utter cult?

With its slew of high-profile new incomers – Nadhim Zahawi, Suella Braverman and now former education secretary Gavin Williamson widely expected to be the next to cross the floor – Reform is absolutely not a cult of one man, its supporters insist. But has anyone told Danny Kruger?

Kruger, until last year a Conservative MP and now the man apparently preparing Reform for government, has written a toe-curlingly obsequious column for the Spectator magazine painting his party as some sort of religion and leader Nigel Farage a Papal figure to which his fellow ex-Tories need to receive absolution from should they wish their sins in the last government to be washed away.

The evangelical Christian writes: “The split on the right is not the fault of Reform. It is the direct consequence of Conservative party failure, of successive leaders who followed the advice of Lords Gove, Moore and Finkelstein to favour unity over clarity, continuity over change, and the system over the people”. (The Spectator is edited by, er, Lord Gove.)

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“The proper response of Conservatives to the crisis the country is in is to admit their responsibility for it,” he goes on. “In the case of the leading offenders (the ones who imposed net zero, surrendered to Stonewall, threw open the borders and let welfare spending soar) the proper response is to retire from politics.

“For the rest (including Kemi Badenoch, who is by no means the worst of them) they should make the humbling journey I made last September, and Rob Jenrick, Andrew Rosindell and Suella made this month. Like Emperor Henry IV before the Pope at Canossa, they should stand barefoot in the snow to seek – and receive – absolution from Nigel Farage.”

Kruger’s comparison is slightly defective: in the story of Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV’s 1077 Walk to Canossa, any expectations that the Pope would restore support of Henry’s right to the throne were soon dashed. The Pope once again excommunicated Henry, who ultimately invaded Italy, captured Rome and forced the Pope – Gregory VII – to flee, which probably isn’t the outcome Farage is hoping for.

And indeed, Farage may not sit easily with the religious overtones. When interviewed by Canadian crackpot Jordan Peterson about his plans to restore traditional Judeo-Christian values to Britain in the event of a Reform government, he said: “I may not necessarily be the best advocate for monogamous heterosexuality… or stable marriage having been divorced twice.” In which case, perhaps Kruger should look to someone with increasingly far-right views who is comfortable being treated as a messiah. Russell Brand’s quite free these days…