Tory leadership frontrunner Robert Jenrick says Conservative party contributed to 'our national decline'

14 September 2024, 07:59

Frontrunner in the campaign for the Conservative leadership Robert Jenrick has said the party contributed to “our national decline” and is in need of “fundamental change”.

Following the worst Tory result in terms of seats in history in the summer’s general election, the former immigration minister has said it is his job now to “speak some hard truths about our failures in government”.

This comes after Jenrick topped the second round of voting in the contest for party leadership as Mel Stride was eliminated following Dame Priti Patel’s defeat in the opening round.

The former housing secretary has admitted to errors made by the party, including their approach to the NHS, and said the party must now take a path of admitting to their mistakes rather than “putting your fingers in your ears, pretending that nothing went wrong, hoping the public have buyer’s remorse and come back to you”.

The 42-year-old told The Times: “It involves doing the hardest thing of all in politics, which is to admit that perhaps you didn’t get everything right, repenting for those mistakes, and then slowly beginning to rebuild the trust and the confidence of the British public.

“It also involves fundamentally changing the operation of our party and our offer to the public.”

Jenrick believes he is “nailed on” to reach the final two of the leadership contest having amassed 33 votes in the most recent round - five more than Kemi Badenoch in second.

James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat make up the final four candidates who are set to stake their claim in 20 minute speeches at the party conference at the start of October.

A key talking point throughout the leadership contest has been the NHS.

Sir Keir Starmer said this week the health service needs to "reform or die" with "major surgery, not sticking plaster solutions", following a probe from independent peer Lord Darzi.

The damning review found the service is in a "critical condition" and needs huge injections of cash to bring it back to life.

Despite this, the prime minister stressed there will be no extra NHS funding without reform, as he promised to draw up a new 10-year plan.

He said: "We can't duck long-term change. This isn't just going to be solved by more money, it's solved by reform."

Jenrick echoed this message as he admitted the Conservative government instead “boasted about recording funding” rather than focussing on “value for money” and “productivity”.

He said:“We boasted about the record funding that we were putting in year after year, because the public want to see the NHS well-resourced.

“But we were not obsessed with how we can ensure that it actually delivers good value for money, productivity gains and above all, the experience that patients actually deserve.”

“So today there’s 20 per cent more doctors and nurses in the NHS, 20 per cent more money than there was five years ago. And yet the NHS is barely treating any more patients in our hospitals.”

The Tory leadership frontrunner said it is in “national interest” to support Labour if they deliver “radical reforms” to the service.

He said: “If Wes Streeting comes forward with radical reforms to the NHS which genuinely drive productivity gains and improve the experience of patients we should support him,” he says. “Because that would be in the national interest.”

Immigration has been another key focus of Jenrick’s campaign so far with a pledge to leave the European Convention on Human Rights but this has led to criticism with many claiming he is looking solely to appeal to those on the right.

Jenrick resigned as immigration minister after becoming "radicalised" and accusing Rishi Sunak of failing to go far enough on the matter.

He has responded to his critics by saying he can appeal to voters lost in the election to both the right and the left.

He said: “I don’t think you have to pick a lane. You can set out to win back the millions of voters we lost to Reform by having clear positions on issues like immigration.

“And you can set out to win back the millions of people we lost to the Labour Party and the Lib Dems.”