Tom Tugendhat enters race for Conservative party leadership
Tom Tugendhat expressed his openness to withdrawing from the European convention on human rights as he entered the competition to take over as the next leader of the Conservative Party following Rishi Sunak.
The ex-security minister, now the second Tory MP to declare their intention to run for office after former home secretary James Cleverly, seemed to be targeting conservative viewpoints in order to appeal to party members.
Although he is considered to be part of the more moderate faction of the party, and has in the past cautioned against withdrawing from the European Court of Human Rights, recent events have demonstrated that Conservative party members typically favor candidates with more conservative views.
Tugendhat expressed concern in October that exiting the convention could lead to negative outcomes for the Good Friday agreement, the Windsor framework, and devolved administrations.
"There are numerous agreements worldwide; if you desire to withdraw from one, kindly elucidate how you intend to deal with the voids they generate," he stated at that moment. "These are significant inquiries, so refrain from casually tossing around words unless you are capable of answering them."
However, in an article for the Telegraph published on Wednesday evening, Tugendhat suggested that he would consider withdrawing from the ECHR. He stated that if institutions create obstacles to managing the UK's borders effectively, the country may need to either distance itself from them or withdraw from their authority.
He recommended that this was the logical choice for Conservatives to make, seemingly to challenge potential right-wing competitors like Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, who are both likely to argue that the UK should exit the ECHR.
He also discussed his views on important topics for members of the Conservative Party, such as gender identity and achieving net zero emissions. The former soldier made the case for raising defense spending to 3% of the Gross Domestic Product.
Tugendhat stated that the Conservative Party experienced a significant loss in the election due to the fact that they had broken their promises to reduce taxes and control immigration, leading to a loss of trust from the British public.
He mentioned that the party might have a chance of winning the upcoming election if they were able to restore that faith from the public. He stated that many smart individuals have analyzed extensively on why they failed in the previous election, but he can summarize it in a single word: trust. He believes that they lost the trust of the British population because they did not follow through on their promises.
I am not running only to become the next leader of the Conservative party. I am running with the goal of becoming the next Prime Minister of the Conservative party. This is the main focus of this leadership election: to come out victorious.
Earlier on Wednesday, Victoria Atkins, the shadow health secretary who is considered to be on the more moderate side of the Conservative party, announced that she will not be entering the race.
The party announced their schedule for the prolonged leadership competition on Monday, with nominations coming to an end next week. Conservative Members of Parliament will narrow down the choices to four candidates in September, who will then present their ideas to grassroots members at the party conference in October.
Following this, members of parliament will reduce the pool of candidates to just two individuals who will then be voted on by the party's members. In the previous two leadership elections, Boris Johnson emerged victorious over Jeremy Hunt and Liz Truss triumphed over Rishi Sunak. Sunak eventually became the prime minister without facing a full leadership contest. He intends to continue serving as the temporary leader until the official announcement of the result on November 2nd.
