Tom Tugendhat says voters no longer take Conservative party seriously

Tom Tugendhat has said that people will “never vote for a party that they’ve stopped taking seriously” – promising to lead a “Conservative revolution” as he launched his campaign for the Tory leadership.

The former security minister said there were tough lessons to be learned from the party’s time in power, which was known for its frequent in-fighting.

“I will make the Conservative party a serious force again. I will make us respected for our experience and our realism, admired for our integrity, acknowledged for our achievements and given credit for seeing the errors that we may make and correcting them,” he said at his leadership speech in Westminster.

Tugendhat said he wanted to apologise for the conduct of the party. “I witnessed the recent political trauma with a combination of depression and anger. I witnessed the failed coups and the successful ones, and I saw duty give way to ego,” he added.

“That’s why I’m standing before you today, because this country can change. We must change, and Britain deserves better.”

Asked why he had not spoken out against things he disagreed with while serving under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, he said his job as security minister was “to keep the king’s secrets,” adding: “Those who are trying to kill us kept me busy enough already.”

Tugendhat, who has lagged behind in MP endorsements compared with the frontrunners Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, is widely seen as the candidate of the centrist One Nation wing of the party. His most high-profile endorsement is Nick Timothy, Theresa May’s former chief of staff who was elected as an MP at the last election.

But Tugendhat said he was not a centrist but a “conservative candidate” and used his speech to promise tough action on migration and changes to Britain’s relationship with the European convention on human rights, promising to leave that treaty if change could not happen. “The entire purpose of international treaties is to keep British people safe, not for us to worship international treaties,” he said.

Tugendhat also promised a legally binding cap on net migration at 100,000 and devoted significant time to criticising Labour’s policy to levy VAT on private schools, warning of the costs to state schools of potentially absorbing extra pupils.

Tugendhat said he would also set out a plan to spend 3% of GDP on defence. “The purpose of British foreign policy is to keep the British people safe and prosperous.”

Tugendhat’s speech is the final launch event of the Conservative leadership contest, before a private hustings for Tory MPs on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, MPs will start the first round of voting where at least one of the six candidates will be knocked out, though another could also potentially drop out at that stage.

Tugendhat, Jenrick and Badenoch are the three most likely to advance to the next stage, to take place at Conservative party conference at the end of September, after which MPs will further whittle down the hopefuls to just two. Three other candidates, James Cleverly, Priti Patel and Mel Stride are likely to be vying for that fourth spot, though Stride is widely expected to be the first eliminated.

The final two candidates will be voted on by Tory members, with the winner expected to be announced on 2 November.