3 weeks ago
Tugendhat bats away question about having least ministerial experience by stressing his combat record
Q: You have less ministerial experience than the other candidates. You were security minister for two years. Is that a worry?
Channel Ronald Reagan’s famous answer to a question about his age, Tugendhat (a former soldier, and a former chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee) says:
I’m not going to hold against anybody their inexperience in combat or their inexperience in foreign affairs …
I won’t hold against them, the areas where they didn’t serve our country and didn’t put their lives on the line. They have served in other ways, and I think we should respect that.
Tugendhat says he proud of his record as a minister.
I’ll stand on [my record]. Mine is two years keeping this country safe, introducing the Security Act, arresting and charging more Russian and Chinese agents in the previous decade, and reforming areas of our intelligence and security services and I’m never going to tell you about [ie, highly secret stuff].
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Tugendhat says he feels “deeply, deeply, deeply uncomfortable” about proposals to legislate for assisted dying. He says he was alarmed by reports from Canada, where assisted dying is allowed, of a veteran with PTSD being unable to access medical treatment and being told to consider suicide instead as an option.
Asked if he would vote against the bill, Tugendhat says he would want to read it first, but he says it is “immensely unlikely” that he would back it.
Tugendhat says he does not support all-women shortlists. He says they would “belittle” MPs like Kemi Badenoch by making it look as if they did not get into parliament on their own merits.
Tugendhat says he thinks Ed Miliband’s plans to tackle net zero are “completely rubbish”. He says:
Every single project he’s got is designed to make electricity and power more expensive, harder to get, and to make us more vulnerable to foreign dictators ….
He’s creating a public sector entity to compete against the private sector and to therefore make bills more expensive. Completely insane.
Q: Do you think we are in a climate emergency?
Tugendhat says he does not accept that term.
Q: Boris Johnson or David Cameron?
Tugendhat says both, but that they are different people.
When Hope says that is a boring answer, Tugendhat says “Boris for a night out, let’s be honest.”
Q: Starmer or Blair?
Tugendhat says:
God, neither. Can you imagine having them both there. Being preached at by one, being patronised. God, it would be torture.
[That sounds his most phoney answer so far. Tugendhat has a serious interest in security, Starmer’s specialist subject, and geopolitics, Blair’s specialist subject. In reality, he would probably get on fine with them both.]
Q: Will you recommission a new Royal Yacht [a Hope obsession]?
Tugendhat says he loves the idea.
Q: Would you restore the winter fuel payments?
Tugendhat says he does not approve of the cut. He would ensure dignity in old age.
But he cannot say what he would put in a budget in four years’ time.
Q: Would you scrap Labour’s ban on new grammar schools?
Yes.
Q: Would you get rid of the top rate of income tax?
Tugendhat says he will not write a budget now.
Q: Are you a nimby, yimby or a banana?
Tugendhat asks what a banana is.
Hope says it is ‘build absolutely nothing anywhere’.
Tugendhat says, yellow and disgusuting, it must be Lib Dem.
That gets a big round of applause.
Q: How do you defend voting remain in the Brexit referendum?
Tugendhat says he does not need to defend that. It is in the past. He has always accepted the result.
Q: Would you let the UK become closer to the EU?
Tugendhat says he will always defend UK sovereignty.
Q: Would you give Boris Johnson a job in the shadow cabinet?
Tugendhat praises Johnson for two things in particular: for standing up to Ukraine, and for appointing a vaccine taskforce, using the private sector, to find a vaccine as soon as the Covid pandemic struck.
Q: Would you like to see him come back in a byelection?
Tugendhat says he is not going to interfer in candidate selections. But if Johnsonn wants to stand, and members want to have him as a candidate, that is fine, he says.
Tugendhat dismisses call for electoral pact with Reform UK
Q: Do you favour an electoral deal with Reform UK? [See 2.04pm.]
Tugendhat says he wants to reform the Conservative party, not turn it into Reform UK.
Tugendhat bats away question about having least ministerial experience by stressing his combat record
Q: You have less ministerial experience than the other candidates. You were security minister for two years. Is that a worry?
Channel Ronald Reagan’s famous answer to a question about his age, Tugendhat (a former soldier, and a former chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee) says:
I’m not going to hold against anybody their inexperience in combat or their inexperience in foreign affairs …
I won’t hold against them, the areas where they didn’t serve our country and didn’t put their lives on the line. They have served in other ways, and I think we should respect that.
Tugendhat says he proud of his record as a minister.
I’ll stand on [my record]. Mine is two years keeping this country safe, introducing the Security Act, arresting and charging more Russian and Chinese agents in the previous decade, and reforming areas of our intelligence and security services and I’m never going to tell you about [ie, highly secret stuff].
Tugendhat apologises to members for how infighting at Westminster let them down at election
Tugendhat says he has a message for members about the general election.
It wasn’t this party that failed, it wasn’t the ideas that failed. It was the centre that failed, and we need to own that.
And so from my perspective, let me just say to all of you, I’m sorry, the infighting in Westminster, the chaos in Westminster, and then the campaign, they will let you down.
