Boris Johnson resigns: Possible leadership contender’s link to Australia

Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, the second person to throw his hat into the ring for the leadership, is well versed in Australia’s relationship with China.

Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat is a contender for the UK PM spot. Picture: AFP.

Of all the names being thrown around as a leadership contender to replace Boris Johnson there is one that has a particular interest in Australia’s policies.

Tom Tugendhat confirmed his intention to stand for the leadership of the Conservative party, late on Thursday (UK time) saying he wanted to bring together a “broad coalition” for a “clean start”.

“I have served before -- in the military, and now in Parliament. Now I hope to answer the call once again as prime minister,” he wrote in an editorial in the UK Telegraph.

Mr Tugendhat is a former soldier and served in Iraq and in Afghanistan before becoming the member for Tonbridge and Malling. But it is as the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee that Mr Tugendhat has been intensely briefed about Australia’s rocky relationship with China.

At the moment the Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is favourite to take over, seen as a quiet, considered, steady pair of hands to deal with the country’s rampant inflation and spiralling cost of living crisis, exacerbated by enormous rises in energy bills.

A snap YouGov poll of Tory members put him at the top of the list in head-to-head match-ups just ahead of Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss.

But Mr Tugendhat is viewed as a strong contender for the role.

Two years ago Mr Tugendhat co-founded the China Research Group, which draws upon Conservative MPs to debate how Britain should respond to the rise of China and he has looked to Australia’s strong positioning on China for guidance.

Britain's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is favourite to take over from Blris Johnson. Picture: AFP.

His group was instrumental in provoking the Boris Johnson government to reverse an earlier decision to allow the Chinese company Huawei access to British 5G networks. He drew specifically upon Australia’s stance, and other Five Eyes intelligence countries, particularly the United States, to ensure Chinese companies would not be building the 5G network.

In the past month the China Research Group has highlighted how the British nuclear power plant under construction and due for completion in 2026, Hinkley Point C, is one third funded by the Chinese state company, China General Nuclear (CGN). Recently two other British CGN projects, Hinkley Point C, Sizewell C have been sidelined.

Mr Tugendhat has insisted: “We cannot allow the technological heart of our power system to be exposed to the risk of disruption by states that do not share our values”. Another issue raised by the group is the 30 “Confucius Institutes” which are educational bodies in the United Kingdom, but are effectively an arm of the Chinese Communist Party.

Politically Mr Tugendhat is considered untainted by the upheavals of the Johnson administration, but at this point he will start as a rank outsider.

He tweeted on Thursday: “Right call by Boris Johnson to resign. Delivered Brexit, rolled out the vaccine and led on Ukraine. Now we need a clean start.”

Right call by Boris Johnson to resign. Delivered Brexit, rolled out the vaccine and led on Ukraine.

Now we need a clean start.

— Tom Tugendhat (@TomTugendhat) July 7, 2022

The timetable to nominate Mr Johnson’s replacement will be set out next week. Party grandees hope to conclude the two-stage contest well before the Conservative party holds its annual conference in October.

The first stage will see the 358 Conservative members of parliament whittle the nominees down to two, via successive rounds of voting in which the bottom candidate is eliminated each time.

The second stage will involve tens of thousands of grassroots party members picking the winner in a secret ballot.

Depending on the negotiations between the Tory candidates as they are whittled down to just two contenders in the coming weeks Mr Tugendhat, 49, could emerge as a compromise candidate. The two final names will be put to the broader Conservative Party members for a vote.

It has been a quirk of the lengthy campaigning process that underpins a Tory leadership race, that the initial favourite has rarely won.

YouGov has rated Jeremy Hunt, who came second in the 2019 Conservative leadership contest to Mr Johnson as an outsider, alongside the new chancellor Nadhim Zahawi.

Mr Zahawi’s overt actions in the past two days, initially accepting the Cabinet position, then personally telling Mr Johnson he has to go, and then publicly tweeting the same message, may have helped Mr Johnson make up his mind to resign, but Mr Zahawi’s flip-flopping is seen by some as being disloyal.

So far only Suella Braverman, the Attorney-General, has formally declared her intention to stand, and desiring to fully implement Brexit.

In outlining her vision on television she said: “I want to embed the opportunities of Brexit and tidy up the outstanding issues relating to the Northern Ireland protocol.

“I want to fix the problem of illegal boats crossing the Channel, stop a Strasbourg court from interfering in our domestic policies, cut taxes, shrink the size of the state and government spending and take on some of this cancel-culture and woke rubbish which is permeating our schools, our universities, our society.”

But she is currently considered a rank outsider, in a similar vein to backbencher Steve Baker, head of the European Research Group which pushed for a hard Brexit.

He said that he has been asked to stand by many people and that it would be “dismissive and disrespectful” not to put his name forward. But his candidacy would be about future positioning and bringing his hard Brexiteer allies behind one of the more favoured candidates.

Those considered with a real chance are the International Trade minister Penny Mordaunt and the ex-chancellor Sunak.

Ex hedge fund partner Mr Sunak, who has pushed for low tax measures, has been tainted by his billionaire wife’s tax status in the UK and that he had a green card to work in the United States.

Ms Mordaunt, 49, has worked in public relations for various entities linked to the Conservative party before being elected as an MP 12 years ago. She strongly supported Brexit.

Meanwhile foreign minister Liz Truss has cut short her visit to Indonesia for the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Bali to fly back to London to prepare her leadership bid.

A smart networker among the grassroots and backbenchers, Ms Truss can also point to her experience as environment secretary and international trade secretary to bolster her credentials.

Sajid Javid, a former banker, started the current leadership crisis with his own resignation from the Health Secretary position on Tuesday night and has won fans among the Conservative members for his hawkish approach quickly dismantling Covid-19 regulations.

Other high profile ministers such as deputy prime minister Dominic Raab and cabinet minister Michael Gove, have ruled out their candidacy at this point.