Tory leadership contender Tom Tugendhat launched a broadside against overregulation warning it has “drained the pools of capital” as he set out his bid to lead the party.
The former security minister vowed to lead a “Conservative revolution” while setting out his stall in a pitch to MPs and members at the Royal Horseguards Hotel on Tuesday.
Introduced by newly elected Scottish Conservative MP Harriet Cross, Tugendhat walked on stage to a backdrop of ‘Tom’ placards and foam fingers, to energetic music.
The Tonbridge MP and former soldier used his speech to argue for a Conservative approach to stimulating growth, suggesting: “Overregulation has made pensioners poorer by reducing savings returns and it’s drained the pools of capital we need to grow global leaders.”
He added: “After all, we did not successfully roll back the frontiers of the state a generation ago, only to see them reimposed by stealth, through regulation.”
Tugendhat pledged to use the opposition period to prepare for action “on day one” of a new government, saying his mission is “the happiness and prosperity of the British people”.
He said: “The last great economic transformation that our country saw was in the 1980s – some of you will remember it well.
“Since those changes, Britain’s creeping bureaucracy has returned and it’s stifling growth and it’s smothering opportunity.
“And we need to clear back those cobwebs so that once again our economy – and most importantly, of course, our people – can breathe free and make our country grow again.”
Tugendhat, whose speech was attended by former MPs Jake Berry and Damian Green, swore to deliver on economic growth by “releasing the brake” and ensuring the country has the right skills and the right infrastructure.
Other commitments including a promise to spend three per cent of UK GDP on defence, a pledge to “return to the honest state, the responsible state”, and a reiteration of his willingness to exit the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if required.
The speech on Tuesday, the final launch event of the Conservative leadership contest, came just one day before the first round of voting by Tory MPs.
MPs will narrow the field of six candidates down to four ahead of the party’s conference at the end of September, after which MPs will further whittle down the hopefuls to just two.
They will then be voted on by Tory members, with a winner expected to be declared on November 2.
All six candidates are expected to take part in a hustings on Tuesday afternoon prior to the vote on Wednesday.