Has Tom Tugendhat blown up his leadership campaign at launch?

We shouldn’t be surprised by Tom Tugendhat saying he is willing to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and then his subsequent failure to back up that claim in a wishy-washy radio interview. There is, after all, a long tradition in the Conservative party of ambitious centrist politicians pretending to believe in right-wing notions when positioning for the leadership.

Back in 2013, Philip Hammond had started to get talked about as the coming man and then popped up on the radio to say he would support leaving the European Union if our relationship with it could not be successfully reformed. Cue a further frisson for Hammond among the party grassroots.

In the event, David Cameron’s attempt to negotiate a new EU deal for Britain was a total flop but Hammond nonetheless became one of the least surprising and most zealous exponents for remaining in it when the referendum was held.