The Conversation (0)
Politics
Liam O'Dell
Jul 17, 2022
Related video: Tom Tugendhat quotes Dumbledore during Tory leadership debate
Channel 4
Please spare a thought for Tory leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat, because as the UK braces for extreme heat over the next couple of days, the military man is being roasted over his plan for housing as well.
Somebody give that man a Solero!
Mr Tugendhat, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, summarised a new article he wrote for The Telegraph in just two sentences: “We need to build more new homes. That’s the solution to the housing crisis.”
In other more earth-shattering news, the sky is blue. More as we get it.
The article reads: “Building more homes must be a political imperative for the Conservatives. We know that people who have a mortgage or own their home outright are much more likely to vote for our party than Labour. We are a party that stands for aspiration and capitalism. What is capitalism without capital?
“However, as successive governments have found to their detriment, presenting housing as a numbers game creates more enemies than friends.
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“Rather than Labour’s plan to pave over paradise without giving the inhabitants a say, we need to empower local people to make the decisions that are best for their families and communities.”
The comment on Labour echoes one made during Friday’s ConservativeHome hustings, during which Mr Tugendhat said the rival party’s approach to housing would “concrete over the whole country and leave us with socialist homes”.
Yet the hopeful’s short and sweet summary of his proposals hasn’t exactly gone down well with Twitter – as many pointed out his suggestion of building “more new homes” seemed to forget the word “affordable”:
\u201c@TomTugendhat We need a General Election.\u201d— Tom Tugendhat (@Tom Tugendhat) 1658039707
\u201c@TomTugendhat Forgive me, Tom, but this tweet feels overly simplistic and lacking any real substance. I thought you were better than that.\u201d— Tom Tugendhat (@Tom Tugendhat) 1658039707
\u201c@TomTugendhat The conservatives have said that for the last 10 years.....now banks plan to buy up new builds to rent out..this need outlawing immediately\u201d— Tom Tugendhat (@Tom Tugendhat) 1658039707
\u201c@TomTugendhat Yesterday you said that all's labour wanted was to concrete over Britian with social housing. I assume you only want the building of Unaffordable Housing!!\u201d— Tom Tugendhat (@Tom Tugendhat) 1658039707
\u201c@TomTugendhat Agreed, but your party has been making that statement for over a decade and failed at every step. Must be challenging with no more council stock to sell.\u201d— Tom Tugendhat (@Tom Tugendhat) 1658039707
\u201c@TomTugendhat We need social housing , as well as homes for sale\u201d— Tom Tugendhat (@Tom Tugendhat) 1658039707
\u201c@TomTugendhat @its_johnmartin Anyone seen the 300k new homes Johnson promised? Or the 40 new hospitals??\u201d— Tom Tugendhat (@Tom Tugendhat) 1658039707
\u201c@TomTugendhat @its_johnmartin But not "socialist"ones, as you call it? Where are all the new builds your party promised over the last 12 years? We need affordable homes, young people can't move out, because rents are stupidly high.\u201d— Tom Tugendhat (@Tom Tugendhat) 1658039707
\u201c@TomTugendhat What\u2019s been stopping you?\u201d— Tom Tugendhat (@Tom Tugendhat) 1658039707
The ridicule is probably the last thing Mr Tugendhat needs ahead of the next televised leadership debate, which is set to get underway on Sunday at 7pm on ITV.
It comes a day before the next round of voting, which will see the candidate with the fewest votes eliminated.
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