Tom Tugendhat enters race to become next Tory leader
Ex-Cabinet minister Tom Tugendhat has launched his bid to become Conservative leader with a pledge to lead the party to election victory in 2029.
The former security minister, who currently shadows the role, attempted to reach out beyond his traditional moderate support base by insisting he would defend “conservative principles”, pointing out he has defended civil liberties by opposing the Covid passports idea and opposed planned rises to National Insurance that were later overturned.
The Remainer former Army officer has been building his links with the right of the party and counts self-styled “Brexit hard man” Steve Baker as a supporter, as well as the moderate former One Nation Tory chairman Damian Green.
He pledged to rebuild trust with voters who turned away from the party after the Boris Johnson Partygate scandal and Liz Truss’s disastrous premiership by ending Tory infighting.
Mr Tugendhat also received a boost as fellow moderate Victoria Atkins announced she would not be standing.
The former army officer, who joins ex-home secretary James Cleverly in the race, said: “The British people rightly wanted more control over their lives, streets, borders and much more. But instead of delivering on our promises we focused on fighting amongst ourselves.
“The only way we will win their trust back is by sticking to our Conservative principles and keeping our promises.
“If I say something, I do it. I’m standing to be the next Leader of the Conservative Party to keep my promises and deliver for our country. I know that if the Conservative Party does that, we will return to power in five years’ time.”
Earlier Mr Cleverly echoed his colleague’s call to end infighting, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that his party has been “the most successful political movement, I think, in human history”.
But recent achievements, which he listed as including stabilising the economy and supporting Ukraine, were overshadowed by “a number of negatives”, he said.
“I think one of the reasons why the criticisms landed, and the good work didn’t get cut-through, is we’d spent too much time rowing amongst ourselves, which gave the impression – the wrong impression – but gave the impression that we were more focused on ourselves than serving the British people. So we have to get out of that habit.”
