A Kent MP has become the second person to throw their hat in the ring to challenge for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

Tom Tugendhat was elected to represent the new constituency of Tonbridge at the general election on July 4.

Announcing his leadership bid in an article in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Tugendhat, who is known to be from the Tory’s more moderate wing, seemed to make a play for the right by implying he would be prepared to quit the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to protect the UK’s borders.

He said: “We know that if institutions do not serve the British people and make it harder to control our own borders, then we will have to exempt ourselves from them, or leave their jurisdiction.”

However, when interviewed on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, he was asked several times whether he was prepared to leave the ECHR and each time he avoided saying “yes”.

He said repeatedly that the Conservatives had been defeated in the general election because they had “failed to deliver” on their promises, adding that the economy “hadn’t grown properly for 25 years”.

He also admitted that too many of his colleagues “had thought more about factional infighting than delivering for the people”.

In his Telegraph article, Mr Tugendhat said he was standing not just to be the next Conservative leader, but “I am running to be the next Conservative Prime Minister”.

He is the second hopeful to join the leadership race after James Cleverly.

Nominations to replace Rishi Sunak have to be in by 2.30pm on Monday, July 29.

Following the Tories’ worst general election result, the Conservatives have just 121 MPs. Mr Tugendhat will need the support of at least 10 of them to be accepted as a candidate.

Under the leadership rules, the initial field of candidates - which some are predicting might be as many as seven - will be whittled down by MPs, first to four, and then to two, before Conservative Party members are asked to make the final choice.

The winner will be declared on November 2.

Other likely candidates are expected to be shadow communities secretary Kemi Badenoch, former work and pensions secretary Mel Stride, former home secretaries Suella Braverman and Dame Priti Patel, and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick.

According to polling by Savanta carried out between July 19 and 21, Mr Tugendhat, who has represented Tonbridge and Malling since 2015, is the most popular potential contender among both the public, at minus three points, and 2024 Conservative voters, at 21 points.

Savanta puts Mr Cleverly at minus nine points with the public and 19 points among 2024 Conservative voters.

Mr Tugendhat, 51, went to Cambridge University and worked briefly as a journalist on the Daily Star before joining the Territorial Army.

He served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, before becoming an assistant to the Chief of the Defence staff.

He is currently the shadow minister for security.

He previously attempted to become Tory party leader in 2022 after the resignation of Boris Johnson.

He was eliminated in the third round of parliamentary voting, and subsequently Liz Truss was elected party leader.

Analysis from KentOnline’s political editor Paul Francis

The success or failure of political parties and politicians depends largely on whether they can - or have - demonstrably delivered on the promises they have made to the electorate.

Tom Tugendhat has acknowledged that at the election, voters had lost trust in the Conservative Party, leading to one of the most spectacular defeats in electoral history.

The party had simply not come good on what it had promised. From the failure of attempts to stop small boats crossing the Channel to a host of other reasons, voters registered their displeasure with devastating consequences for the Conservatives.

The challenge Mr Tugendhat now faces is persuading enough MPs to back him in a leadership race that will see the parliamentary party whittle down the number of would-be contenders to four, with the winner selected at a special conference in November.

He has been here before: he joined the last leadership contest but was eliminated in the third round after running what was regarded as a slick campaign.

His pitch will be presenting himself as the candidate that won’t break promises - simple enough on one level but hard to demonstrate when you are a party in opposition.

He certainly has confidence, writing in an article for the Telegraph: “Clever people have already written a million complicated words about why we lost that election, but I can do it in one: trust. We lost the trust of the British people, because we didn’t do what we said we would.”

He says the party lost focus and factions within it were more interested in ideological arguments than delivering for the British people.

Whether he can be the unity candidate that restores the party’s fortunes remains to be seen.