Watch: Tugendhat jibes at Jenrick over special forces

Uh oh. There’s trouble in Tory paradise after leadership candidate Robert Jenrick made some rather questionable remarks about the armed forces. At the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, the wannabe leader claimed that: ‘Special forces are killing rather than capturing terrorists’ because of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Tory frontrunner added that ‘those who do not understand military operations or the law of armed conflict should not be commenting on it’. Good heavens…

And, as might be expected, Jenrick’s rival Tom Tugendhat — a former army officer — has taken umbrage at his competitors comments. Speaking to the BBC, Tugendhat fumed: ‘I’ve spoken to former directors of special forces today and quite a lot of people are rather angry that this suggests they are not living up to the values and standards of the British armed forces.’ One Tory insider remarked to Mr S that: ‘Someone who wants to become leader of the Conservative party should probably be trying to keep the armed forces on side’ — while another Tugendhat backer commented: ‘Tom is seething.’