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Tom Tugendhat’s leadership pitch

It’s been a tough few years for Conservative Remainers. First the shock Brexit result and then the premiership of Boris Johnson with all that entails. But last night the long-suffering bearers of the torch of Tory moderation gathered together for a rally of the One Nation caucus of Conservative MPs and their supporters within the Tory Reform Group (TRG). 

Theresa May’s former deputy Damian Green welcomed attendees by quipping that ‘the TRG is essentially full of young and beautiful people – if you see people here who are not young and beautiful they may well be members of the One Nation caucus.’  

Green, a mainstay of various causes on the left-ish wing of the party over the past two decades, told activists that it was their task to ‘make sure that the voice of moderate conservatism, centre-right conservatism is as strong as possible within the party’ – a job ‘never more important than today because there are times when I slightly feel that it is only people like us that stop this party drifting back to being seen as the nasty party.’ A tacit rejoinder to Priti Patel perhaps?

But then it was time for the speaker and the great white hope of Tory moderation. Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, took to the stage to ecstatic applause and, like Green, was under no allusions about the awesome responsibility he and his One Nation caucus members share – to keep the Conservative party effectively sane. He said:

I have to say that looking at myself in the mirror this morning, I realised that what I am is that fat Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke. What we are doing is holding back a tide, we are standing there to make sure that the values which have built our country endure and persist.

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Steerpike
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Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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