Harriet Cross endorses Tom Tugendhat for Conservative leadership

Newly elected MP Harriet Cross has endorsed Tom Tugendhat in the race for leader of the Conservative party, describing him as a “champion” of the Union.  

Cross, the MP for Gordon and Buchan, has said Tugendhat would fight to maintain Scotland's place within the UK.

“I am delighted to endorse Tom Tugendhat MP for leader of our great party,” Cross said. “As a newly elected MP for the Conservative and Unionist Party, it is my duty to support a leader who will protect and fight for our Union. With Tom at the helm of the Conservative Party, the Union will always have a champion.” 

Cross won her Gordon and Buchan seat by a majority of 878 votes, beating SNP candidate Richard Thomson. The Conservative party won five seats in Scotland in the general election, down from six in the 2019 election. This pushed them into fourth place in Scotland, behind the Liberal Democrats.  

The 33-year-old said Tugendhat “gets Scotland” and that the shadow security minister is “the best hope for our party,” after the pair campaigned together in the election campaign. 

“It is great to have the support of my friend Harriet,” Tugendhat said. “I am thrilled to have her support. Unionism is indivisible from Conservatism and I promise to always fight for the people of Scotland and the Union.”   

Tugendhat is making his second run for leadership of the party after failing to win in 2022 and subsequently endorsing former Prime Minister Liz Truss. The MP for Tonbridge was part of both Truss’s and former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s cabinet as security minister, where he advocated for the expulsion of Russian citizens linked to the Putin regime in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Tugendhat, who served in the Army in both Iraq and Afghanistan, has also stated in recent weeks that he would be open to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights if it no longer fitted the interests of the UK. This is a change from his position in 2023 where he warned that leaving the ECHR would have negative consequences for the Good Friday Agreement which brought an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. 

Cross added: “Tom recognised that the Conservative Party had been undermined by infighting and factionalism in Westminster, which led to a failure to deliver and a breakdown in trust with the public. 

“He has made it clear that this leadership election is about choice. A choice between drawing a line under the infighting and a future focused on uniting the party and rebuilding it around core Conservative values. He argues that people across the United Kingdom deserve better and as leader of the Conservative Party, he promised to rebuild our party, regain trust and beat Labour at the next election.” 

Polling published last week found former foreign secretary James Cleverly to be the public's favourite for new Conservative leader – but three in five people don't care who gets the job, according to the survey.