Conservative leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat will today call for a ‘brutally honest’ national conversation about the social unrest behind Britain’s recent riots.
The shadow security minister – one of six Tory MPs bidding to replace Rishi Sunak as party leader – will bemoan a ‘culture of denial’ that glosses over acts of violence.
In his first major speech since declaring his leadership bid, Mr Tugendhat will blast Sir Keir Starmer‘s ‘failure of leadership’ over the chaotic disorder in towns and cities.
He is expected to warn that public order ‘can be difficult to regain’ once it has been lost, while he will also take aim at Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
Mr Tugendhat will call for action to address eroding social trust, which he is set to argue is partly caused by the spread of misinformation and reckless remarks by some politicians.
Conservative leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat will today call for a ‘brutally honest’ national conversation about the social unrest behind Britain’s recent riots
The shadow security minister – one of six Tory MPs bidding to replace Rishi Sunak as party leader – will bemoan a ‘culture of denial’ that glosses over acts of violence
In his first major speech since declaring his leadership bid, Mr Tugendhat will blast Sir Keir Starmer ‘s ‘failure of leadership’ over the chaotic disorder in towns and cities
Mr Tugendhat is expected to warn that public order ‘can be difficult to regain’ once it has been lost
In the wake of the riots following the Southport stabbing attack, he will say: ‘Too often, over the last two decades or more, we have avoided being brutally honest, preferring instead the warmth and false comfort of denial and complacency.
‘We need to end the culture of denial – the tendency to move hurriedly on from acts of extreme violence, to obfuscate about the identities and motives of the perpetrators.’
Mr Tugendhat will call on Sir Keir to clamp down on all forms of sectarianism and take a robust approach to ensuring that the police have all the resources they need to bring any individual involved in lawlessness and thuggery to justice.
He will add: ‘Once lost, public order can be difficult to regain, which is why the police response to disorder must always be swift and determined.
‘For officers on the streets, policing a violent crowd is a dangerous job.
‘We sometimes hear of the need to go softly, softly, and to make arrests later. But visible lawlessness encourages others to join in and commit crime.
‘Once people cross the line, they need to be met with uncompromising force.’
Mr Tugendhat will also argue that prison both provides effective punishment and keeps dangerous offenders off the streets.
He will criticise Labour’s decision to reduce the amount of their sentence many offenders will have to serve before being released on parole.
Faced with the prospect of running out of prison spaces, the Government in its first weeks in charge announced plans to temporarily reduce the proportion of a sentence offenders must spend behind bars from 50 per cent to 40 per cent.
There are exceptions for terrorists, sex offenders, people convicted of crimes linked to domestic abuse, and violent criminals serving more than four years.
Mr Tugendhat will say: ‘Prison punishes offenders and takes dangerous and prolific criminals out of circulation, allowing the rest of us to live in peace.
‘We should be updating and improving our prisons, not releasing criminals.’
A former soldier, Mr Tugendhat is battling former home secretaries James Cleverly and Dame Priti Patel, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, former business secretary Kemi Badenoch and former work and pensions secretary Mel Stride for the Tory leadership.
This is Mr Tugendhat’s second bid for the role, having stood in the first leadership contest in 2022. He was eliminated in the third round of voting by MPs.