AIBU to question Danny Kruger's Oxford background and charity funding?

[LostinLondon2025]

I’m curious about Danny Kruger, previously Conservative, now Reform, and apparently considering re-joining the Tories now that Nigel Farage has been caught out hiding the £5m he was given by a Thai Crypto billionaire to - hmmm - relax reporting rules on Crypto

I gather Danny did his DPhil at Oxford. Unusually, I can find no note of his college anywhere, nor the title of his DPhil, nor who funded it. Does anyone know?

I also have questions about his teaching at the Blavatnik School of Government. I happen to know the stipendiary pay there is unusually low - about £17k-£20k at the time he was there - and it’s therefore not the impressive intellectual flex that a lot of people think it might be. Quite a lot of rich foreign graduates use the Blavatnik for CV points. Was Danny, not foreign, being financially supported by his mother, the famous Bake Off host Prue Leith, during this time?

Who donated to Danny’s White City estate charity? Anyone who lives in Shepherd’s Bush will tell you he’s not a popular man and nor is his wife. Would you not expect those local people that they helped to be full of praise and gratitude?

I’m not a journalist, but my spidey senses are tingling here.

I used to run in the same circles as Danny at Edinburgh University. He definitely didn’t invent that part of his education. He was nice enough but obviously incredibly posh. He came round for dinner a few times and was funny, bright.

I do think it’s important actually. If he completed his doctorate he must have filed his thesis at Oxford University. It should be listed on ORA or SOLO. It’s not. Therefore by definition he does NOT have a doctorate from Oxford university.

He may have started a doctorate on Edmund Burke at Lincoln College.

But don’t you think a man like him would call himself Dr Kruger if he had earned the title (whether self funded or not!)?

If he is lying about his education, that speaks to his character: fake, charlatan, arrogant type without the grit to complete a difficult project.

Rachel from Accounts lied on her CV, has never run a business and is determined to run every small business into the ground.
Do you work in the public sector?

Rachel from Accounts lied on her CV, has never run a business and is determined to run every small business into the ground.
Do you work in the public sector?

Is that actually correct, though? From my bit of googling, it looks like the online records might not actually be complete for the period in which he completed his PhD/DPhil. I don't claim to know much about this, but equally don't want to suggest he is lying unless the evidence is clear.

Yes it’s a fair point. He doesn’t claim his doctorate so presumably never finished it. Otherwise he’s “Dr Kruger”

He is a really nasty piece of work. The things he’s said are appalling. Nothing would surprise me with him.

Oh please stop with the nonsense about "rachel from accounts".

Feel free to criticise the Chancellor as much as you like. Debate her policies if you don't like them. Attack her understand of economics or her lack of experience in running a business if you wish. Point out the discrepancies on her cv if you feel it's relevant. But just fucking stop churning out the misogynistic insults.

It is worth noting that Rachel Reeves has a far greater claim to being "an economist" than most of her male predecessors ever had, and very few of them had ever run their own business either. Curiously, nobody seemed quite so desperate to dismiss their qualifications for the job.

He’s described as Dr Danny Kruger on the Lincoln College FB page report of when he attended an event there as Alumnus speaker.

I really don’t understand the brass neck of an anonymous commentator asserting that because she can’t find something online that therefore it can’t be true.

My husband has a DPhil from Oxford and a cursory search on Solo doesn’t include his thesis.

PP above has got Lincoln College referencing Kruger as Dr Kruger so OP is basically completely wrong, as are those who assert that he’d “definitely” be the sort of person to want to use the honorific. You’re demonstrably wrong.

Never Trust a Tory. (Or Reform).

I dunno what this proves, but as a counter to "my husband..." above, I have just looked up 6 DPhil theses on Solo, by friends and acquaintances, all submitted between 1997 and 2006. Every single one is listed there with a clear and identifying record.

Clerical errors, name changes, cataloguing listings, digitisation issues and barcoding are of course all possible in any large repository. But so is the possibility that he didn't finish (I didn't either) or that he didn't actually do it at all. In which case, like me, he should not be addressed as Dr and should correct it every time people assume the title for him.

You can only actually confirm it with Oxford if you email an enquiry and can show written permission from the person you are enquiring about. Perhaps OP could approach him and ask?

All of that said, DK is an odious bastard with terrible views, doctorate or not.

An awful lot of DPhils/PhDs in the humanities are self funded. There is very little funding available. I think it is unreasonable to say they are necessarily "looked down upon".

I just searched for the DPhil theses of a whole load of people that I know for certain received a DPhil from Oxford in the 1990s or early 2000s. Including Mark Carney and a certain History Fellow from St John's of a similar vintage to Danny Kruger (seeing as you mentioned this friend of yours...). A few showed up. Most didn't.

I think you're being a bit unreasonable. Much as I loathe the guy.

Was he Oxford Oxford or Oxford Brookes?

I happen to know the stipendiary pay there is unusually low - about £17k-£20k at the time he was there - and it’s therefore not the impressive intellectual flex that a lot of people think it might be.

What has the pay got to do with how much of an intellectual flex it is? Financial flex, sure.

He wasnt referred to as George from PR no, but him and his mate 'Dave' were frequently referred to as PR men, rather than politicians. And of course people took the mickey out of George by calling him Gideon

People take the mickey out of all colour of politicians.

Here’s another Oxford page where his DPhil (awarded in 2000) is referenced:
https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/events/aspects-conservatism-danny-kruger-country-we-want-be
and here’s his page on the Parliament website where how to address him is given. He chooses to be known as Danny Kruger not Dr Kruger:
https://members.parliament.uk/member/4858/contact
By contrast here is another MP with a PhD who wants everyone to know it:
https://members.parliament.uk/member/4511/contact

Hope that’s clear for everyone now!

@wheresthesnowgone Oxford

All UK PhDs (DPhils from Oxford and a few other institutions) should be held electronically in the British Library (unless withheld for reasons such as commercial confidentiality). It used to be really easy to search for them but I cannot figure out their new website (it’s stumped me a few times on this issue). Might be worth trying there.

He’s my MP and DON’T give a toss.
What I do know is that he’s been able to engage on what matters to his electorate now freed from the constraints of the party line.
I’ll believe him re-joining the Tories when it happens.

I give a toss. He’s my MP. He was parachuted into a safe seat becuse of his connections (Johnson) and is an out and out horror. Keep digging pls.

Which matters are those please? I’d be interested (genuinely)

His thesis was submitted in 2000 so would not be on ORA and could well not be on SOLO as many print theses aren’t due to cataloging backlogs.