The second ballot takes place today and the surviving candidates will then be doing TV debates over the weekend.
Tom Tugendhat had a good result yesterday, securing 37 votes and finishing ahead of 3 Cabinet Ministers/former Cabinet Ministers. Today we are looking to build on that!
My column in today’s Sentinel sets out my reasons for backing Tom - You can read the text of it below.
Aaron
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In my last Personally Speaking column I noted that it had certainly been an eventful month of activity in Westminster - the political temperature (and that of the country) has only risen since.
I was in Belfast last week, where I had been taking part in a Science and Technology Select Committee visit, and had booked a flight back to Manchester so I could spend the Thursday in Newcastle. However, whilst we were touring the Titanic exhibition on Tuesday evening Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid resigned, and things spiralled from there.
On Wednesday we heard evidence in Stormont then headed to the airport. Turning off my phone for the hour-long flight felt like I was missing out on a week of news alone! And by the time I arrived, so many Ministers had resigned that it was clear that I needed to jump straight on a West Coast Mainline train back down to Euston.
I am glad that by the next morning the Prime Minister had accepted the inevitable and announced his resignation. It was unfortunate and unedifying that so many Ministers had had to resign to demonstrate the loss of confidence of the Parliamentary party, which had finally collapsed after the appalling handling of the allegations against the former Deputy Chief Whip, Chris Pincher MP.
Despite my public calls for the Prime Minister to go, I nevertheless felt that last Thursday was a sad day. I backed Boris Johnson for the leadership in 2019, and I still believe I was right to do so, given his success in finally unblocking the logjam in Parliament and getting Brexit done, which I do not believe any other candidate at the time would have delivered. I was proud to stand on a manifesto to Get Brexit Done, and remain proud that we were able to deliver on that promise to the British people.
I am also proud of many other achievements of this Government, including our world-leading support to Ukraine, the success of the vaccine development program and subsequent rollout, and delivering over £50m for the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme to level up. Boris Johnson has been a very consequential Prime Minister and I think the history books will testify to that.
Following his resignation, a leadership contest has begun and I know many constituents will be wondering who I am supporting to lead the country.
We need to restore trust in our politics, and we need a Prime Minister who has consistently demonstrated courage, leadership and integrity. That’s why I’m backing Tom Tugendhat to give the UK a clean start.
In October last year, Owen Paterson, the then Member of Parliament for North Shropshire, was found to have breached paid advocacy rules. It was on this subject that I voted against the Government Whip for the first and only time as Newcastle’s MP. The Government was forced to acknowledge that the vote conflated the individual case of Owen Paterson with the general case for reform and that it was unwise to seek to change the rules for everyone on the basis of one sympathetic case. Owen Paterson then resigned. Public trust in the integrity of politics, and in politicians to do the right thing, were weakened by this.
In May, the publication of the Sue Gray report into Partygate confirmed my initial view that there were a number of unacceptable failings at the heart of Government, both with reference to the specific events, and the culture in Number 10 which allowed them to take place. Public trust in the integrity of politics was undoubtedly weakened by this as well.
And then last month, very serious allegations were made in several newspapers about the behaviour of Chris Pincher, the MP for Tamworth, which was witnessed by other MPs who reported him. Mr Pincher resigned as Deputy Chief Whip. However, it emerged that Boris Johnson had been briefed about previous allegations before appointing him as Deputy Chief Whip, but publicly denied this. For many of those in my party, this was the final straw.
These sorry cases are part of the reason why I am backing Tom, as a fresh face with a record of service, leadership and integrity. Tom has served our country in our armed forces, fighting during the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan, and has served as Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament, where he has focused on British foreign policy priorities after Brexit. Boris got Brexit done. Now we need the right PM to maximise the opportunity we have to make Brexit successful for all of the UK.
Having worked with Tom closely in recent times I know that he is fully committed to serving our country, and have been thoroughly impressed by the way he conducts himself and how he leads others.
We cannot afford to lose focus on the challenges our country faces. Tom is a low tax Conservative. At his leadership launch on Tuesday, he set out proposals for a 10-year plan for the economy to tackle the cost of living. He also pledged to cut fuel duty by 10p per litre and reverse the National Insurance rise.
Tom will make sure his Government continues to deliver for places like Newcastle. He is the only candidate in the leadership contest who attended the Northern Research Group conference in Doncaster in June, and he is one of the only candidates still absolutely committed to levelling up this country, a core plank of the manifesto on which I stood in 2019.
We need someone to bring back trust and integrity in politics, and who can show the necessary courage and leadership to be our next Prime Minister. I believe that Tom Tugendhat has all of these qualities.
The rules for the contest mean that MPs putting themselves forward will first have to secure the support of Conservative MPs before the final two go to a ballot of all Conservative Party members. The shortlist of two should be known by next Wednesday and we should know who the next Prime Minister is by 5th September.
As the saying goes, a week is a long time in politics. The next few weeks could set the course for our country for a lifetime.