Tory leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat has said his party “lost the trust of the British people”, but following its election defeat now has an “extraordinary opportunity to really rethink what it is we are offering”.
Speaking to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, he said there needed to be a “Conservative revolution” delivering “a higher wage, lower migration economy – not just shouting at foreigners from the white cliffs”.
The shadow security minister said his party had to “act on the promises we make”, and that he had a “track record of delivery”.
Conservative MPs are in the process of voting for the person they want to replace Rishi Sunak as party leader.
Mr Sunak announced his decision to quit after the Conservatives fell to their worst electoral defeat in their parliamentary history.
Asked why his party lost the general election in July, Mr Tugendhat pointed to what he called “failed” policies on migration and tax rises.
“But what we fundamentally lost was that ability to have that confidence of the British people, and I’m standing because we need to return our party to the service of the British people.”
He said he wanted to see “the blood of the economy flowing again, so you get that intergenerational fairness – the link between energy of the young and the assets of the old, so you get geography and generations connected”.
On immigration, he said his party should not be “pretending that you can fix migration by withdrawing from a single treaty or changing a single bill”
Mr Tugendhat reiterated his desire to leave parts of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – a treaty, established in 1950, setting out the rights and freedoms people are entitled to in 46 signatory countries.
He said it was an “extraordinary piece of legal work”, but that 80 years later “things have changed”.
“If we really can’t get the reforms then we need to be prepared to leave – but prepared means actually doing the work in advance.
“This isn’t something we can just tear off the band aid and pretend it has no consequences. It underpins many other treaties and we need to be absolutely ready.”
‘Most Conservative thing’
During the interview Mr Tugendhat faced a number of quickfire ‘yes or no’ questions.
Asked if he would bring back the Rwanda immigration policy scrapped by Labour, Mr Tugendhat said: “You need a deterrent – I can’t predict whether it’ll be Rwanda or something else.”
Asked if too many people were going to university, he said he would “rather have more apprenticeships”, but that universities were private businesses and should be able to recruit as they wished.
Lastly, asked what the most Conservative thing about him was, he replied: “Family is the most important thing to me – I think that is the most Conservative thing about many of us.
“As Margaret Thatcher put it, the facts of life are Conservative – based on our family, community and society – and knowing there is a difference between that and the state.”
Mr Tugendhat is one of five MPs left standing in the Conservative leadership contest.
The list of candidates will be whittled down through further votes by their fellow MPs, until only two are left.
Party members will then have a chance to pick the winner – the result will be announced on 2 November.
In the first MPs’ ballot, Mr Tugendhat secured 17 votes, coming fourth behind Robert Jenrick (28), Kemi Badenoch (22) and James Cleverly (21).
Mel Stride came fifth with 16 votes and Priti Patel was knocked out after finishing last with 14 votes.
Source Agencies
