Former European Minister says Tugendhat would “restore trust” with his “can do” attitude

FORMER European Minister Sir David Lidington CBE says he backs Tom Tugendhat because he has a ‘can do’ attitude which will see plans put into action.

In an interview with GB News presenter Alastair Stewart, Sir David also said he believes Tugendhant winning the Conservative leadership race will bring the party together.

He told GB News:: “In Tom, I think we’d have a number of advantages. I mean, first of all, I think he would find it easy to restore trust in the party and in politics in general. And that’s something that has been very seriously damaged by recent events.

“I think that even though he’s not got the sort of ministerial experience that some of the other contenders have, Tom has a military experience that enables him to do two things.

“One is that you draw upon people of all the best abilities from all traditions of the Conservative Party, and I think he’s got the talent to mould them into a team. And we need the left, right and centre of the Tory party to work together not to be feuding about things.”

He added: “One of the things I think you always notice when you’re talking to people in the military is the ‘can do’ attitude and knowledge. Fine to have a great ambition, a slogan, a mission, but then you’ve got to turn that into an operational plan.
“We will be taking a risk but I think that what he has got is experience in a different walk of life of leadership and of team building and or turning ambitions into operational plans enable him to do the job. I do think that the clean break actually can move the party, the country and the Government on from all the problems and that mistrust from the last months and years; it would be a great advantage.”
His comments come after Tugendhat vowed to “stick closely” to the 2019 manifesto on which Boris Johnson was elected, despite questioning the PM’s “honesty”.
He told GB News this weekend: “One of the other things I’ll be making sure is delivered is Brexit. What Boris Johnson has done is delivered most of Brexit, let’s be honest there’s still Northern Ireland, and that’s a really big issue, let’s not kid ourselves that it’s going to be easy because it’s not.”