Tom Tugendhat Says He Wants To “Reform The Tories, Not Become Reform”

Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat has said that if he becomes the party leader, he would want to “reform” the Conservative Party but not allow it to “become Reform”.

Tugendhat is one of six candidates who have officially entered the race to replace Rishi Sunak as party leader. The others are ex-work and pensions secretary Mel Stride, former home secretaries Priti Patel and James Cleverly, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, and ex-business secretary Kemi Badenoch.

Previously a security minister in the Conservative government between 2022 and 2024, Tugendhat is a leading member of the One Nation caucus of Conservatives MPs which identifies as the more moderate wing of the party.

After their worst general election defeat ever, there is a divide among Tories over the direction the party should now take to win again. Some MPs and former MPs consider Tugendhat and his One Nation colleagues to be “unconservative”, with one MP who lost his seat on 4 July telling PoliticsHome that they would leave the Tories and join Nigel Farage's Reform UK if Tugendhat became leader.

While Reform UK won only five seats in this year’s General Election, 4,117,221 people voted for them across the UK, making up 14.3 per cent of the national vote share while the Conservatives had a 23.7 per cent vote share.

Despite pressure from some in his party to lurch to the right to appease those who voted for Reform, Tugendhat was adamant that this should not determine what the Conservatives do now.

“What we've got to do is demonstrate to people that you know now isn't the time for a party of protest, whether that's Reform or Lib Dems or whoever, now is the time for a party that will actually deliver for you,” he told PoliticsHome.

“I want to reform the