Tom Tugendhat joins race to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader

Former security minister Tom Tugendhat has joined the race to replace Rishi Sunak as the next leader of the Conservative Party.

He is the second person to formally join the race, with shadow home secretary James Cleverly announcing his candidacy yesterday.

Nominations for the race opened up this evening, with Mr Tugendhat, Mr Cleverly, Suella Braverman, Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick understood to have picked up the paperwork required to stand.

Mr Tugendhat ran to be leader in the competition in 2022, and was rewarded with a cabinet role despite falling short of the top job.

The current contest will run until the beginning of November.

Previously chair of the foreign affairs select committee, the former soldier is known for his hawkish views on China and Iran.

Writing in The Telegraph, the Tonbridge MP said he is prepared to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

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Diagnosing what he thought had gone wrong for the Tories in the last election, Mr Tugendhat wrote: “Clever people have already written a million complicated words about why we lost that election, but I can do it in one: trust.

“We lost the trust of the British people, because we didn’t do what we said we would.”

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He added that the public wanted things the party had previously promised: “lower taxes, lower immigration, more control over their everyday lives”.

But the last government “just didn’t deliver”.

He said the current leadership race will not be divisive as the party is agreed on several points: “The ECHR. Gender. Tax rates. Defence spending. Net zero”.

Mr Tugendhat added: “We know that if institutions do not serve the British people and make it harder to control our own borders, then we will have to exempt ourselves from them, or leave their jurisdiction.

“We know what a woman is. We all want lower taxes. We all know national security must come before Treasury spreadsheets.

“We all know that energy security and household bills come first.”

And he says that his plan, should he be elected, is to beat Labour at the next general election and become the prime minister.

“What qualifies me for this job? Well, I live by a simple rule. If I say I’ll do something, I do it,” he said.

“I swore to serve King and Country, so I fought our enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan. I fought them again in government as security minister under two Conservative prime ministers.

“I didn’t win every argument I had then, but I won the important fight, to keep the country safe from terrorism. I said I’d stand up to dictators, which is why China’s Communist government has sanctioned me, hacked me and targeted me.

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“Politics, like life, comes down to one simple rule: keep your promises. When the Conservative Party does that, it wins.

“And the Conservative Party can win the next election. Trust me. I will make it happen.”

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