Choose Tory leader before the Budget, says Tom Tugendhat

Tom Tugendhat has said the Conservative leadership contest should be brought forward so it is completed before the Budget.

The shadow security minister, one of four candidates in the race to replace Rishi Sunak, argued that the next leader should have been chosen by the time Rachel Reeves announces her tax and spending plans on Oct 30.

The new Tory leader will not be announced until Nov 2, meaning it will fall to Mr Sunak to respond to the Chancellor.

In an interview with The Telegraph’s Planet Normal podcast, Mr Tugendhat was asked whether he would “bring forward” the contest.

He said: “Let me be absolutely clear – yes. We should have a leader of the opposition who’s able to respond to the Budget, because that Budget is going to set the agenda for this Government and for this Parliament.

“I was asked about this a few weeks ago. I was asked whether I’d like to respond as leader of the opposition to the Budget. I said of course I would.

“It’s going to be one of those seminal moments in this Parliament where you are able to pin Labour down and show the damage that they are doing – to ordinary families across our country, to businesses who are employing people, to older people who are trying to retire, trying to make plans but won’t be able to.”

In what appeared to be a swipe at some of his parliamentary colleagues, Mr Tugendhat added that he had “had enough of the game-playing in Westminster”.

The MP for Tonbridge is up against James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, Kemi Badenoch, the shadow housing secretary, and Robert Jenrick, who quit as immigration minister last year.

All four will address the party faithful at the Conservative Party conference, which starts next weekend, before further rounds of MP voting whittle the field down to two finalists.

Party members will have the final say on the remaining two candidates. Mr Jenrick has topped both of the MP ballots held so far, with Ms Badenoch coming second both times.

Elsewhere in his interview, Mr Tugendhat argued that the Conservative Party was still “the best vehicle for the hopes and dreams of the British people to be made into reality”.

He said: “The reality is the opposition really matters. Having [Jeremy] Corbyn as leader of the opposition was incredibly toxic for this country.

“I don’t want to be leader of the opposition – I want to be prime minister. And I’m standing because I know that this Conservative Party can be back in power in five years if we choose the right leader, if we focus on the policies that actually make this country strong and we deliver for the British people.”

Asked about his support for remaining in the European Union in 2016, Mr Tugendhat insisted: “I oppose going back into any European Union deal now because I just don’t think we’d have a seat at the table.

“It wouldn’t work. And, you know, the job of life is to move forward, not backwards, and we need to make sure that what we’re doing is standing up for the interests of the British people going forward.”

Mr Tugendhat also said the Civil Service had to change its ways of working and was in urgent need of reform, adding: “Every single bureaucracy in the world, they want to turn up and do the same job they did yesterday, today.

“There is definitely inertia in the Civil Service, and that’s why one of the first things we’ve got to do before we get back into government is we’ve got to have a proper plan for reforming the Civil Service.”

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