Robert Jenrick has said the political system he was part of is broken as he claimed he is the person who can change that as Tory leader.
The former minister told a leadership race rally in his Newark constituency he wants to “breathe new life into our party” and will ensure it becomes a “mass membership organisation once again”.
He is running against five other Conservatives to replace Rishi Sunak as leader: Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Dame Priti Patel, Mel Stride and Tom Tugendhat.
Admitting the Conservative Party “let too many people down”, he said it needs to “confront some hard truths”.
“The primary one is that we broke our promise to the British public to deliver controlled and reduced migration and the secure border that the public rightly demand,” he said.
Mr Jenrick quit as immigration minister over Mr Sunak’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda, describing the bill as a “triumph of hope over experience”.
He told the rally he resigned because he was “not willing to be just another minister who makes and breaks promises on immigration”.
Pic: PA
‘NHS a public service – not a religion’
But Mr Jenrick also said he quit because of all the broken promises on the economy and the NHS.
“We’ve poured cash into the black hole of waste and inefficiency. We allowed new quangos to arise. We allowed poor management to go unpunished,” he added.
“We allowed the lions on the front line of the NHS to be let down by the donkeys in the back offices.
“Above all – above all – we forgot that the NHS is a public service, not a religion.”
Mr Jenrick said the party “must never make those choices again, we must never shirk the difficult decisions, we must never jump at our own shadows”.
And he said the current political system “is not working for the…
