Robert Jenrick has said the political system he was part of is broken as he claimed he is the person who can change that as Tory leader.
The former minister told a leadership race rally in his Newark constituency he wants to “breathe new life into our party” and will ensure it becomes a “mass membership organisation once again”.
He is running against five other Conservatives to replace Rishi Sunak as leader: Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Dame Priti Patel, Mel Stride and Tom Tugendhat.
Kemi Badenoch is seen as Mr Jenrick’s biggest rival in the race. Pic: PA
Admitting the Conservative Party “let too many people down”, he said it needs to “confront some hard truths”.
“The primary one is that we broke our promise to the British public to deliver controlled and reduced migration and the secure border that the public rightly demand,” he said.
Mr Jenrick quit as immigration minister over Mr Sunak’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda, describing the bill as a “triumph of hope over experience”.
He told the rally he resigned because he was “not willing to be just another minister who makes and breaks promises on immigration”.
Robert Jenrick was previously immigration, and housing minister
‘NHS a public service – not a religion’
But Mr Jenrick also said he quit because of all the broken promises on the economy and the NHS.
“We’ve poured cash into the black hole of waste and inefficiency. We allowed new quangos to arise. We allowed poor management to go unpunished,” he added.
“We allowed the lions on the front line of the NHS to be let down by the donkeys in the back offices.
“Above all – above all – we forgot that the NHS is a public service, not a religion.”
Mr Jenrick said the party “must never make those choices again, we must never shirk the difficult decisions, we must never jump at our own shadows”.
And he said the current political system “is not working for the British people” as he denied all the difficulties are the fault of the Tories, saying they are challenges faced by most countries in the West.
The bookies favourite hoped to show he has enough pizazz to bag the top job
Speaking for 15 minutes without notes, the former immigration minister once known as Robert “Generic” hoped to show party members he has the pizazz for the top job.
Some of the lines were reminiscent of David Cameron, whose no-notes speech to his party’s conference in 2005, telling the party to confront its failures, took him from leadership underdog to frontrunner.
Jenrick’s analysis of the reasons for this defeat – multiple state failures but with immigration at the top of the list – was confidently set out. He said the party needed to face “hard truths” to have a chance of coming back.
Two points were emphasised to show why he thinks he is the right person to lead it – his win in Newark, against the odds, the sort of Midlands small town constituency which would be key to a future Conservative recovery.
And his decision to resign as immigration minister in Rishi Sunak’s government, prompted, he said, by “a cycle of broken promises” he could not prevent.
Other than migration, he said his party needed to build more houses in cities, so that young people were not stuck in their childhood bedrooms.
And he said the party’s loss of its reputation for “sound financial management”, and failure to take the right decisions on the NHS needed to be confronted.
Asked afterwards about his journey from uber-loyal Remainer to right-wing critic of his party, who wants the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, he put it down to his two years at the Home Office – when he claimed the government was powerless to limit numbers or stop dangerous people coming in.
Jenrick is picking up support among right-wing MPs, who will whittle the candidates down to two, and is currently the bookies favourite to win.
If he gets to the final two, success will hinge on party members believing his conversion, and backing him over some of the bigger personalities in the race.
‘The system is completely broken’
Mr Jenrick said he had believed the system was working but over the past two years, he realised “a different approach is needed” and the “overbearing and powerless” state needs to be reduced.
Emphasising his strong beliefs on immigration, he said he “fought relentlessly” to solve mass migration problems “that most people agree with”.
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“And yet our political system was either unwilling or unable to effect the change that our country needs,” he said.
“And in the end, I concluded this – that the system that I had been part of, that I had upheld, was completely broken and was contributing to our national decline.”
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Who is running in the Tory leadership race?
More prisons, more defence spending and a smaller state
Mr Jenrick accused Labour of lying to the public in their first four weeks in power and said that is why “our party remains our country’s best hope” – but it has to change.
Outlining what he would do if he was prime minister, he said more prisons need to be built, defence spending needs to be at least 3% of GDP and a small state is necessary.
Jenrick suggested he would make different choices to Sir Keir Starmer
Mr Jenrick used his recent victory in Newark, where he has been an MP since 2010, to show he has the ability to win.
“If we show that we are united again as a broad church, but a broad church with a common creed – if, above all else, we show that we have changed – then we can win again,” he concluded.
“And we can and will win again. Not in ten years. Not in two terms. But we can win the next general election.”
The list of candidates to be the next Tory leader will be narrowed down to four when parliament returns on 2 September before being whittled down again to two ahead of party members voting for the leader on 31 October.