Tom Tugendhat vows to save Boris Johnson’s levelling up agenda with ‘vocational Oxbridges’

Tory leadership hopeful pitches himself as champion of the north – and vows to slash fuel duty by 10p

Conservative leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat has pitched himself at the candidate who will save Boris Johnson’s “levelling up” agenda with an appeal to Tory MPs and members in the north and Midlands.

Mr Tugendhat, who reached the 20 endorsements needed to reach the next stage of the contest, has support from Jake Berry and other leading figures in the Northern Research Group (NRG) of backbenchers.

“My friend Jake Berry speaks about wanting a vocational Oxbridge in the North – I want one in every region,” the moderate told supporters at his official launch.

Promising to invest in a series of vocational education centres, he said: “I will commit to creating new Institutes of Technology across every major town and city of the UK, so that every child has the chance for a world class technical education.”

Mr Tugendhat added: “Levelling up isn’t about an us versus them, a north versus south, or an east versus west. It’s about harnessing the energy of the entire country to build a better future for everyone.”

The MP for Tonbridge and Malling, who has no cabinet experience, set out his pitch to be the “clean start” candidate – attacking current Tory pettiness, factionalism and scandal.

“We have retreated into the pettiness of a politics that is more about personality than principle,” said Mr Tugendhat, who has support from centrists in the ‘One Nation’ wing, as well as some moderate red wall MPs elected in 2019.

He added: “We have retreated into division when we desperately need unity. When our nation needed our party to function, we retreated into faction. When the moment demanded service, we delivered scandal.”

Rishi Sunak will launch his bid to become prime minister with a pledge to cut taxes only after inflation has been brought back under control.

But Mr Johnson’s arch loyalists Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg came out in support of foreign secretary Liz Truss in a bid to block Mr Sunak.

Mr Rees-Mogg said she has “always opposed Rishi’s higher taxes, that again is proper conservativism”, while Ms Dorries said Ms Truss, who voted Remain in the 2016 referendum, is probably a “stronger Brexiteer than both of us”.

Mr Tugendhat also said he backs tax cuts – promising to take fuel duty down by 10p a litre, and reverse April national insurance rise.

“Tax cuts cannot be the only round in the magazine,” he said – vowing to champion financial deregulation. He said EU’s Solvency II regulations can be ditched, calling it one of the “biggest benefits of Brexit”.

Mr Tugendhat said status as a Remainer in 2016 was not important, having promised to push on with Mr Johnson’s controversial legislation to unilaterally ditch protocol checks in defiance of the EU at the weekend.

The outsider also said the final two candidates who make it through to the ballots before summer recess on 21 July contest must be prepared to go the distance.

Warning against any stitch-up that would see one of the final two stand aside, Mr Tugendhat said: “There is no way that anyone who makes it to the last two should either offer or accept a compromise that goes behind the back of Conservative party members.”