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Louise Thomas
Editor
Tom Tugendhat’s campaign has had to change its slogan after it spelt out a rather unfortunate word.
The original slogan read: “Together we can, Unite the party. Rebuild trust. Defeat Labour” but it was soon pointed out that the first letter of the first word of each sentence read as ‘turd’.
It was quietly changed on Thursday, with the final line being replaced with the words: “Win back the country”.
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Mr Tugendhat, who launched his campaign on Wednesday, is seen to be a candidate from the moderate wing of the party.
But he has indicated that he would be prepared to leave the European Convention on Human Rights if necessary in order to take control of Britain’s borders – something which could ruffle feathers in the moderate wing of the party.
Speaking to Sky about the UK’s membership of the ECHR, he said he is “prepared to make any decision necessary to keep Britain safe”.
The former security minister added: “I think you’ve got to be clear-eyed about this. We should never be a part of any organisation that doesn’t serve our interests.
“We should never be part of any alliance that doesn’t promote the security – and prosperity falls into that.”
His campaign has so far seen him highlight his track record of delivery, having served in Iraq and Afghanistan, done a stint as security minister and “stood up to dictators in parliament”.
Mr Tugendhat admitted that his party lost the election because the public had “quite understandably lost trust with us, because we failed to deliver”.
On Thursday, Robert Jenrick became the third MP to announce his leadership bid, joining Mr Tugendhat and former home secretary James Cleverly.
Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Kemi Badenoch and Suella Braverman are yet to formally declare they are standing but are expected to do so before Monday’s deadline.
They must secure nominations from 10 MPs in order to make it onto the ballot paper. The new leader of the Conservative Party will be appointed on November 2.
The shortlist is expected to be whittled down gradually until the final four are paraded in front of party members at its conference in October.
