Tugendhat: Tories must deliver economic change not ‘shouting at foreigners’

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Tom Tugendhat said the UK needs a “Conservative revolution”, including higher wages and lower migration, rather than “shouting at foreigners from the white cliffs”.

The shadow security minister appeared on BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg to discuss his bid for the Tory leadership where he said his party had “lost the trust of the British people” and some of their policies had “failed”.

When asked what he would change about his party, the MP for Tonbridge said it had an “extraordinary opportunity” to “rethink” what it was offering to the public.

He continued: “We need a Conservative revolution in four years’ time to return the country to the service of the people.

“We need to make sure the economy actually works for people, delivering a higher wage, lower migration economy – not just shouting at foreigners from the white cliffs and pretending that you can fix migration by withdrawing from a single treaty or changing a single bill.”

In the interview, the former security minister said he wanted to “leave parts of” the European Convention on Human Rights immediately, enact reforms regarding the treaty and he was prepared to leave it entirely if reforms “don’t work”.

He said: “What I want to do is right now is to derogate from certain aspects of the European Convention on Human Rights, to leave parts of it, which we can do now – the French do it, other countries do it in different ways.

“The second thing is we need to reform it, because actually it’s become ‘dynamic’, as so-called, since the 1970s and 80, and it’s changed.

“And if we really can’t get the reforms, then we need to be prepared to leave it – 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, and my commitment is that we will be ready.”

When asked by Laura Kuenssberg whether he would reinstate the Rwanda scheme, he responded: “You need a deterrent.

“Now, I can’t predict whether it’ll be Rwanda or something else – the Germans may have already taken on all the capacity of Rwanda by that stage, so we need to make sure we put a deterrent, as Italy does, as Germany is planning, and many others.”

Mr Tugendhat was then pushed by the host to respond “yes” or “no” to whether he would bring back the scheme, to which he said: “It’s impossible to answer a four-years’-time question, forgive me.”

In the interview, the MP emphasised his experience as security minister and his time spent serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Speaking on Sunday morning, shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins told Sky News she will be supporting Robert Jenrick in the leadership content.

She told the programme: “We want a brighter future for our families, we want to have our own home, we want to ensure that our public services are well run, and I believe that Rob and I can find that common ground and reform the Conservative Party to attract those voters back to us.”

Asked why she favoured Mr Jenrick over other candidates, Ms Atkins said he had “a really interesting story to tell about younger generations” having set out plans to build more homes and spoken to younger people in his previous role as housing secretary.

This week, Mr Jenrick emerged as the frontrunner to replace Rishi Sunak as former home secretary Dame Priti Patel was eliminated from the contest.

Former immigration minister Mr Jenrick picked up 28 votes in the first ballot of MPs, with bookmakers’ favourite Kemi Badenoch in second place on 22.

Shadow home secretary James Cleverly was one vote behind on 21, shadow security minister Tom Tugendhat on 17 and shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride on 16.

Another round of voting will take place next week before the final four take their campaigns to the Tory conference starting on September 29.

After that, MPs will carry out further rounds of voting to select two final candidates for the party’s grassroots to choose between, with the result of the members’ ballot announced on November 2.