Chancellor ‘sees more black holes than Mr Spock’, says Tom Tugendhat

Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves “sees more black holes than Mr Spock”, a Conservative leadership hopeful has claimed.

Tom Tugendhat said October’s Budget could “destroy growth” in the UK and he branded VAT on private schools a “vindictive and nasty policy”.

The shadow security minister faces Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick in his party’s leadership contest, with Rishi Sunak’s successor due to be announced on November 2.

Taking questions on the Conservative Party conference main stage in Birmingham on Monday, Mr Tugendhat said: “This is going to be one of the most consequential budgets in our lifetime. This is going to be a Budget that takes us back to the 1970s not forward to the future.

“This is a Budget that is going to destroy growth, destroy opportunity and destroy hope for people, and don’t just take my word for it, look at what’s happening right now.”

Mr Tugendhat added: “Go and talk to people in the City and ask them how much business they’re doing. Go and talk to financial advisers and accountants, they are all selling everything, cashing in everything and moving everything abroad.

“This Government is already destroying the economy. It is already doing damage to this country and they’ve barely even started.”

In reference to a £22 billion “black hole” which Ms Reeves identified in the public finances after she became Chancellor, and to the American sci-fi show Star Trek, Mr Tugendhat said: “She sees more black holes than Mr Spock.”

Asked whether he would abolish VAT on private school fees, should he lead the next government, Mr Tugendhat replied: “Yes.”

He added: “Let’s just be quite clear about this, this isn’t just a bad policy, it’s a vindictive and nasty policy.

“First of all, they’re not waiting for the beginning of the school year to give parents and kids the chance to change if they need to, that’s just plain mean.

“Secondly, they’re not just making those who send their kids to private school pay, they’re making everybody pay, because whether you’re going to have to pay the 20% extra – actually it’s business rates, so it’s more like 35% maybe even 40% extra – whether you’re going to have to pay that or whether you’re just going to have to have larger class sizes, either way, Labour is making you pay.”

The Government will introduce a standard 20% VAT to private school fees from January 1 2025.

On the Conservatives’ electoral enemies, Mr Tugendhat said: “The enemy is trust.

“We have eroded trust in ourselves and we need to rebuild trust in the Conservative Party.

“Let’s be honest: people didn’t vote for that paddleboarder (Sir Ed Davey) to become prime minister and they didn’t vote for Nigel (Farage) either to become prime minister.

“They voted against us. People woke up in the morning and they wanted to get us out.”

On Boris Johnson’s support for Ukraine, the candidate described his work as “heroism” and added it would be up to local Conservative associations if they wanted to choose the former prime minister as their election candidate in the future.

Mr Tugendhat also said he was “working on” being sanctioned by Pyongyang and Caracas.

“I’ve been in Parliament, standing up against the dictators and tyrants that at the time some people thought were friends but we now know to be exactly who they are – (Russian president Vladimir) Putin and Xi (Jinping, president of China) and the Ayatollah (Ali Khamenei) – call them all out,” he told activists and delegates at the conference.

“Got me sanctioned, as you know, for the privilege, but I think it’s important. Well, I’m sanctioned by Russia, I’m sanctioned by China, I’m sanctioned by Iran.

“I’m working on North Korea, I’m working on Venezuela.”

Asked whether he is a former spy, Mr Tugendhat replied: “I was a uniformed intelligence officer.”