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.

My one isn’t

The issue isn't that people are taking the mickey though. Take the mickey as much as you like, just don't belittle her in a way that is blatantly sexist.

Whether you want to accept it or not, "Rachel from accounts" is deliberately playing on a gendered stereotype of a woman in a junior admin role with the intention of suggesting that she cannot possibly be suitably qualified for a Big Job That Is Normally Done By Men. Whereas the reality is that she has a stronger academic background in economics and more professional experience as an economist than the vast majority of her predecessors.

I am no great fan of Rachel Reeves personally and I think she has made mistakes as Chancellor but I'm disgusted by the misogynistic abuse that is directed towards her, and it's even worse when that comes from other women. If you want to criticise her, then find something substantial to say and stop relying on the barbed sexist put-downs.

I was very pleased with his efforts with the assisted dying bill. The false information put out by proponents of the bill was horrifying - they didn’t seem to even understand their own bill.

I did a postgrad qualification at Oxford, having not studied there as an undergraduate. It was a completely different experience to being an undergrad. I didn't mix with them; bar a tiny bit of teaching I rarely encountered them. I'm responding to your point about it being weird none of you had come across him - I don't find that weird at all.

I'm not a DK fan by any stretch but I really feel you're making mountains out of molehills here. Plenty of other things you could focus on when it comes to him, but making up a PhD seems unlikely to be the most important.

I think the fact that Lincoln College is billing him as Dr Danny Kruger is sufficient evidence that he finished his DPhil. They should know.

The fact that he has a PhD doesn't make any of his views more palatable though.

But only women get sex based abuse.

I think the clue to him is in the Christianity.

The Only Connect charity website has a slightly peculiar description of the way they work, with ‘love’ given quite an emphasis. His wife is CEO (she was co-founder) and there seems to be another married couple on the board. This is not against Charity Commission guidelines as such, but as a general rule trustees are supposed to make judgments independently and vote or act in the best interest of the charity, without other influences coming into play. Whereas evangelical Christianity (to which he subscribes) often talks about male leadership within marriage…

I am definitely concerned about the influence of evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity but hadn’t particularly considered Danny Kruger before now.

Interesting better query it Borrow. Mine is from way back when.

I believe Gideon is actually his given name though?

He and Dave ARE PR men from posh backgrounds though, and saying so has no sexist connotations. Whereas calling RR “Rachel from accounts” both undermines and belittles her, in the same way as a smirking Dave Cameron managed to be incredibly sexist when he told a female MP in the HoC to “calm down dear”. It’s not something a man would ever have to tolerate. Can’t you see the difference?

eta @MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack said it much better

I expect Dr Danny Kruger will be back in the Tory party soon anyway.
I don't know much about him but the impression I have from watching him on QT is not a good one.

Such as concerns from residents over threatened solar farms very likely to cause disruption to life locally. Taking up problems with DWP/HMRC. Against rise in parking charges. Off the top of my head…

Yes, it is (or was) but he changed it officially when he was a teenager.

Then it’s cruel/annoying, but still not sexist. Very much a ‘punching up’ “joke”.

I’m not Oxbridge so can’t vouch for the veracity, but a friend who studied at Lincoln College 94-98 and would therefore have crossed with Danny Kruger can’t recall ever having met him - despite being an OE too. So if he was a student there, he obviously didn’t make his presence felt.

Next time I see Mrs Kruger in the school yard I will ask!

@DoughnutBingo your friend was presumably an undergrad. Kruger was there as a graduate student. It’s quite possible and indeed likely that most undergrads wouldn’t cross paths with any post grads.

But actually yes, you’re probably right and Lincoln College itself has been the victim of an elaborate fraud (see PP’s screenshot of Lincoln referencing Kruger at a college event).

This is so depressing.

I know his wife (have t seen her for years and years though) and have met Danny several times in the past.

Only Connect is an amazing charity. I went to several plays in London prisons with Only Connect. They worked with prisoners and people post release. They lived in a community house with people who had been released and did stellar work helping them to get back on their feet and not reoffend.

Haven't been involved in any way for more than 15 years so no idea what it looks like now, but the venom people are spitting about Danny because of his faith is really horrifying. Come on.

Would I vote reform? Never. Do I think Danny is a good man? Yes. Politics is brutal and I think it takes exceptional courage to stand in any seat and for any party.

I only read the first couple of pages but I hope other people who saw first hand the work that Only Connect did/does might also speak up for him. He’s just a human trying his best.

The OP spoke of Kruger’s charity in White City. I live here and know nothing about it.

I edited a detail I had included about my OE friend in my post as it would have been too identifying, but put it this way, my friend’s career would be over if he was knowingly telling a fib. A Google suggests there are 645 students at Lincoln College so it’s not impossible that Kruger was there, but it seems unusual for two old Etonians to live and study in the same very small place.

I’m not posh enough to be part of Danny Kruger’s set, but I know enough about his anti-women views to despise him.

Awesome. Well I do have a lot of overlap with Danny AND Emma’s friends and the idea that he is anti-women is ludicrous.

So much hatred and declaration of “fact” about people you haven’t met and don’t know.

FWIW I also did a postgrad at an Oxford college and did have some undergrad friends but I’m sure 95% of the undergrads I overlapped with in college wouldn’t have a clue who I am and wouldn’t remember me.

It really isn’t that odd - there were 3 people from my year at school in my college at Cambridge and it was a much much smaller school than Eton. Especially if DK was a postgrad. I don’t think I went into college more than 4 or 5 times in total when doing my PhD as it just wasn’t relevant to my life.

Yeah but this is Oxford university. Throw a stick in a college quad and you’ve got a 50% chance of hitting a public school chap. (Alumna from a hundred years ago)

Agreed. Generally undergrads and grads don't mix much.

I'm sure Lincoln College knows whether he is an alum or not, and whether he got a doctorate or not. I don't think we need to debate this any more!

I can't stand the man (I call him 'Dunning Kruger'), but I don't think he's necessarily lying. People who've been students at Oxford during the last 10 or 15 years are very easily traced on the electronic system, and, if they wrote thesea, these will be on the libray system. If they were earler, then it's much more hit-and-miss, and he was a little too early from that point of view.

Yes me too. He is my MP, and I don’t know anyone he has even replied to. He claims to have done something about the lorries, but nothing has changed, claims to care about the river since the flood, but voted in support of the water companies previously…..so what is he doing that you are happy about?

@User7649527
There is nothing ‘depressing’ about taking a dispassionate look at a charity’s website and offering a point of view. A charity is publicly accountable, regardless of how ‘nice’ or well intentioned the founders might be.

I have wide-ranging experience within the charity sector and, as per my previous post, there are a couple of things, even from a first glance at the Only Connect home page, which sit a little oddly. For example, stating that their workers get involved in the home lives and family dynamics of their clients. This suggests a lack of boundaries which might not be good for either employee or client. Most charities and especially social workers would emphasise professional conduct and ethics in their relationships with clients.

The use of the term ‘love’ is also problematic. Do they mean paternal love, maternal love, filial love, sexual love…? Or is it Christian love? How does that sit with clients who are not Christian but who perhaps feel implicitly pressured to accept that approach in order to access the support? And again, a lack of boundaries, if the employee is ‘loving’ the client and the client is ‘loving’ them back…

As charities grow it is not as simple as putting on a good project or doing some good work. Both of the above approaches carry some significant risks.