There is still a fortnight to go until parliament returns – but one Tory contender clearly cannot wait to get back to Westminster. Tom Tugendhat this afternoon gave a speech on a theme and at a venue which suited him perfectly: an address at the RUSI military think tank on security. This speech was billed by Tugendhat’s supporters as a chance to show that he is a serious thinker. Yet while there was little here that was truly original, much of it will have had the Tory grassroots nodding along in agreement. ‘We need to end the culture of denial’, he declared, ‘the tendency to move hurriedly on from acts of extreme violence, to obfuscate about the identities and motives of the perpetrators.’
One of the more persistent criticisms of Tugendhat is that he is simply too ‘wet’ to lead
Tugendhat cited the murder of a fellow MP in 2021 as proof of the perils of this wooly thinking – ‘When my friend David Amess was killed by an Islamist we somehow found ourselves debating online civility’. He said he wants ‘a tougher, bigger police force’, but ‘that also requires better police leadership and the honesty to address recent failings’, referencing what he called ‘the perma-crisis at the Met’. He repeatedly referred to anti-Israel marches and said ‘there was inaction in the face of blatant criminality’ during them. As a minister, Tugendhat claimed, ‘I constantly had to encourage the police to make arrests on the day as crimes were being committed, rather than waiting until after the protest had finished’ during pro-Palestinian marches.
Yet while Tugendhat’s speech had some fair points on past failings, his first major address as a Tory candidate will likely be remembered for his attacks on the Labour government. Criticising his opposite number, he suggested that Jess Phillips should have been sacked as a minister for her response to scenes of journalists being intimidated during the protests. ‘When Jess Philips sought to justify the militia, vigilantism and violence on our streets, Keir Starmer should have sacked her’, he told journalists in the room. ‘It is not the only failure of leadership by Keir Starmer’s government over these last two weeks’, he added.
One of the more persistent criticisms of Tugendhat among certain sections of the right is that he is simply too ‘wet’ to lead. It is a persistent charge that has been levelled at various other One Nation figures since the 1980s, regardless of their character – including the likes of Tugendhat’s fellow veterans Carrington, Whitelaw and Pym, all of whom won the Military Cross. Aside from pointing to his own service in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tugendhat’s best bet in rebutting this jibe is by demonstrating his mettle. By playing the pugilist and talking up policy, his team will hope that today’s speech went some way in doing just that. After all, if it can work for Jeremy Hunt in the Conservative Home league table, why not Tugendhat too?
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