![Both Damian Green (left) and Steve Baker lost their seats at the election but remain influential figures in the Tory party](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2024/07/19/TELEMMGLPICT000386132161_17214088532790_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Damian Green and Steve Baker back Tom Tugendhat for Tory leadership
One Nation Tory and Brexiteer urge MPs not to turn to the ‘hard Right’ in wake of election defeat
![Both Damian Green (left) and Steve Baker lost their seats at the election but remain influential figures in the Tory party](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2024/07/19/TELEMMGLPICT000386132161_17214088532790_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Tom Tugendhat has won the backing of the most senior Conservative centrist and a leading Brexiteer as he plans a run for the party leadership.
In a joint intervention, Damian Green and Steve Baker said Mr Tugendhat, a former security minister, would be the right person to turn Tory fortunes around.
Writing for The Telegraph – read the article below – they urged MPs not to turn to the “hard Right” in the wake of the landslide election defeat, warning that such a move would alienate voters further.
Their endorsement will prove a major boost for Mr Tugendhat and will heighten expectations that he is poised to announce a tilt at the leadership.
Both Mr Green and Mr Baker lost their seats at the election but remain influential figures within the party.
Mr Green was the leader of the centrist One Nation group, while Mr Baker is a former chairman of the Right-wing European Research Group.
The pair wrote: “We ought to choose to transcend old divisions of Leave versus Remain, One Nation versus Right. We cannot spend the next five years in recriminations over the past 10. We cannot spend our time in opposition seeking to expel one wing of the party or another.
“We must recognise the dire situation we are in and reflect on why we are here. We will never rebuild the public’s confidence in us if we continue to fight among ourselves.”
![The endorsement of Damian Green and Steve Baker will prove a major boost for Tom Tugendhat](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2024/07/19/TELEMMGLPICT000302631253_17214089940720_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqGhFGD3OcMvc3EVqNhTDH_53YAZ-vIH_3b7AotyOxrcE.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Both criticised the Tories’ record in office, saying that while the party had spoken about “strong Conservative principles” it had “never delivered”.
They also warned about responding to the election – which saw the Conservatives suffer from a huge rise in support for Reform UK – by moving to the Right.
“Some colleagues’ tone often meant that we were cast as a ‘hard-Right’ party or the ‘nasty’ party, leading voters to turn against us or to whichever party in their area was most likely to rid them of us,” they warned.
“That won’t do. Our leader must be someone who can communicate robust ideas with resolve and humility so that the nation is carried, not divided. For these reasons – not despite but because we are from different wings of the Conservative Party – we both see Tom Tugendhat as the individual to deliver the leadership we need.”
Their remarks will be seen as a reference to Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, who has also been heavily tipped to run for the leadership.
She penned an eve-of-election article for The Telegraph in which she said the Tories had been to blame for the rise of Reform by moving too far to the centre.
Rishi Sunak has stayed on as Tory leader following the election but could stand down within weeks to make way for an interim successor. Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who previously led the party, has been touted for such a role.
A full leadership contest would then be organised, the result of which may not be finalised until after the party conference in October. A large number of the 121 surviving Conservative MPs are expected to throw their hats into the ring.
Mr Tugendhat, a former soldier, has been the MP for Tonbridge in Kent since 2015 and most recently served as security minister in Mr Sunak’s cabinet.
He ran for the leadership in 2022 following the resignation of Boris Johnson and reached the third round of voting among MPs before being eliminated.
Kemi Badenoch, the shadow housing minister, is the bookies’ favourite to win the contest if, as is anticipated, she chooses to enter the fray. Priti Patel, a former home secretary, is also widely expected to run, as is Robert Jenrick, who served as immigration minister.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Jenrick described himself as “unashamedly provincial” and said the Tories had lost touch with non-metropolitan voters.
We must elect a leader who can unite us
For years, we have been cast as opposite sides of the Conservative Party, but we have never doubted that the other is a Conservative, write Damian Green and Steve Baker.
We agree that our party is at its best when it is a broad coalition doing robustly Conservative things with a tone that has broad appeal and which we can all be proud of.
There have been issues that we have significantly disagreed on, such as Brexit. Even then, we came together to find a compromise that could unite us and our party.
This was seen in the Malthouse Compromise – something we were instrumental in negotiating – that brought together Conservative MPs from both sides of the Brexit debate. We have both noted that our plan was roughly followed in the end. This unity in a common cause is how we rebuild our party and how we win the next general election.
We ought to choose to transcend old divisions of Leave versus Remain, One Nation versus Right. We must elect a leader who can unite us under timeless Conservative principles of broad appeal for our conservative nation, and make their application attractive and moderate.
We cannot spend the next five years in recriminations over the past 10. We cannot spend our time in opposition seeking to expel one wing of the party or another. We must recognise the dire situation we are in and reflect on why we are here. We will never rebuild the public’s confidence in us if we continue to fight among ourselves.
Ultimately, we both lost our seats in the recent general election because, as a government, we had lost the trust of the public.
We spoke about strong Conservative principles but, in areas such as taxation, deregulation and immigration, we never delivered. Divisions within our party often meant that there was no clear long-term policy plan, and the public did not know who from the Conservative Party to listen to when our different wings kept telling the public the other was wrong.
We were too focused on ourselves and too focused on fighting each other rather than on delivering for the public.
Similarly, some colleagues’ tone often meant that we were cast as a “hard-Right” party or the “nasty” party, leading voters to turn against us or to whichever party in their area was most likely to rid them of us. That won’t do. Our leader must be someone who can communicate robust ideas with resolve and humility so that the nation is carried, not divided.
For these reasons, not despite but because we are from different wings of the Conservative Party, we both see Tom Tugendhat as the individual to deliver the leadership we need.
Tom can deliver expert, positive and consistent leadership to earn trust and get the country through the difficult things that will inevitably be necessary when in due course we must clear up after Labour.
On core Conservative principles, such as liberty under the rule of law, our next leader will have to be firm both in opposing an over-mighty state and in ensuring that the UK Government obeys its own laws.
Every Conservative will see the sense in this, just as it is clear that we can move beyond the sterile post-Brexit debate. While we were on different sides of the Brexit arguments, we all agree that since we have left the EU we must do it properly, outside the EU’s legal structures.
Tom has been clear that there cannot be a half-Brexit – we must continue with a broad and deep free trade agreement as sovereign equals, pursuing essential pro-competitive and welfare-enhancing regulatory reform. There cannot be a return to the customs union or automatic alignment with the EU. We must make the most of our independence.
We both trust Tom to pursue the UK’s best interests as an independent country in the world.
Tom voted against introducing Covid restrictions when the state overreached. He did more than most in British politics to shift Britain’s foreign policy on China long before it was mainstream to do so, and he warned of Russian aggression long before many people had started to take notice of that growing risk.
Tom is known as an honest man of integrity and principle in Parliament – and he is rightly liked and trusted across the spectrum of opinion.
Tom knows we may have to say and do difficult things after five years of Labour bureaucratisation and failure. We trust him on the substance and tone of what will need to be done to serve the public in the way they deserve.
We must make the Conservative Party attractive again to those who are ambitious and hard-working, particularly young people who feel that life no longer offers them a fair deal. New policies are important but equally essential is a rebuild of our grassroots organisation.
Showing we are competent at that is the best evidence that we will again be competent in governing. We must be recognisably Conservative in offering an opportunity society, belief in the little platoons of civil society, and encouragement of enterprise and responsibility, property rights and voluntary cooperation.
We agree. Tom is the leader we need.
Damian Green is the former MP for Ashford; Steve Baker is the former MP for Wycombe