Conservative leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat seemed to channel his inner Albus Dumbledore as the first of three live TV debates kicked off tonight.
Channel 4 moderator Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked each of the five candidates why the public should trust one of them.
Mr Tugendhat told the public of floating voters who trust politics ‘collapsed’ and promised a ‘clean start’ – the phrase that is his campaign slogan.
He continued: “What I have called out and what I have shown over the years is that I am a person who fights and I am willing to call out to my friends as well as my enemies.
“It’s easy to stand up to your enemies – it’s sometimes harder to stand up to your friends.
“We all know that.”
Social media users were quick to point out the similarities between the rule and Dumbledore’s tribute to Neville Langbottom in Philosopher’s Stone, when he says, “There are all kinds of courage.
“It takes a lot of courage to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”
He said the real question to be considered is, ‘Who is this government for? It’s not for us, it’s for none of us.’
When asked why he hadn’t called on Boris Johnson to go, Mr Tugendhat insisted that he made “very clear” “from the start” how he felt about the prime minister.
The five candidates were later asked to answer yes/no to the question of whether Boris Johnson was fair.
Kemi Badenoch told the Channel 4 debate: ‘Sometimes.’
Penny Mordaunt said, “There have been some really serious problems and I think he paid a price for that.”
Rishi Sunak said, “I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt for as long as I could and finally I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t, so I resigned… There were a number of reasons why I resigned, but trust and honesty were part of that.’
Liz Truss said “he has been very clear himself that he has made mistakes in government,” but she had taken his statement for false statements “at face value” over the party gate.
When asked the same question as to whether Boris Johnson was an honest man, Mr Tugendhat said, “No.”
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