The One Nation brigade were out in force last night and Tom Tugendhat was the talk of the town. He may not have not made it into the final two but the former leadership contender received a hero’s welcome at summer receptions for both the Tory Reform Group and Conservatives in Communications. Flanked by a phalanx of fans, Tugendhat was all smiles at the latter event, telling Mr S about the ‘huge’ after party his team threw following his defeat on Monday: ‘it went on until 4 a.m.’
But it was another Tory politician who stole the show at Tugendhat’s event, delivering a witty, self-deprecating speech that made some (well-received) barbs at the Tonbridge MP’s expense. Lord Vaizey, the former culture minister and diehard Cameroon, enjoyed ribbing his fellow Old Pauline at the Tories in Comms event, telling the assembled crowd:
What Tom didn’t say is we went to the same school. We went to a school called St Pauls and I’m now actually head of the St Pauls’ alumni association and I’m on the governing body of the school. The great thing about Tom is that every time I ask Tom to come back to the school and do something for us, help us raise money for bursaries, Tom always says no. That’s really how our relationship works, and I was obviously amazed that Tom made it onto the ballot to be the leader of the Conservative party and Prime Minister but obviously, since we have this school connection, I immediately endorsed Rishi Sunak. I was disappointed obviously because of the old school tie that Tom didn’t get further but luckily, just to show you what an open and meritocratic society that we live in, Liz Truss went from her sink school in Leeds to the same college as me, Merton College Oxford. So although I’m still backing Rishi, either way, I am a winner – whatever happens.
Cue laughter all around. Still, Vaizey did have the good grace to poke fun at himself at the event, regaling the audience with the tale of his dismissal in 2016. As a loyal ally of David Cameron, and signed-up member of the Notting Hill set, the Old Pauline was one of the first to be dismissed after Theresa May moved in to No. 10:
I was actually the longest serving minister in the Cameron government because Theresa May, for some reason, decided to fire George Osborne and others before she got round to firing me. And I was responsible for culture, I was responsible for film, video games, television and creative industries. I was also responsible for broadband rollout, mobile phone coverage, the rollout of 4G. And I don’t know if you have ever been fired by a Prime Minister – looking around the room, probably quite a few of you have. Tom is yet to be fired by a Prime Minister because he’s never had a government job. I remember it vividly because I was in my constituency, and I got a call on my mobile phone. I was driving at the time and in between stroking the dog, steering with my knees, holding the phone to my ear, they said this is 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister is going to call you in 15 minutes. And I knew what was coming – although the world of hope does triumph over experience and I thought “Maybe she’s going to make me Chancellor of the Exchequer”. As I drove off, I realised that I had lost my mobile phone signal so it took the Prime Minister an additional 15 minutes to get through to me to eventually fire me and I reflected that thanks to me doing my job so badly in terms of rural mobile broadband coverage, I served an extra 15 minutes as the longest serving telecoms minister.
Tom Tugendhat will be hoping such glories await him too, upon the formation of the next Prime Minister’s new cabinet.
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