Aaron Bell says Tugendhat 'has integrity'published at 14:30 British Summer Time 12 July 2022
More now on who has secured the backing of other MPs in the race to be Tory leader.
MP Aaron Bell, who criticised Boris Johnson in Parliament over lockdown parties, says he is backing Tom Tugendhat for leader.
In February Mr Bell submitted a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson, comparing the restrictions on his grandmother's funeral in May 2020 with some of the revelations from the Sue Gray report into the Downing Street parties during lockdown.
"What I think the country needs, and what this party needs, is a clean start," he says. "It has been very damaging in the last eight months or so.
"Tom, obviously, isn't associated with that. He's got character, leadership, integrity in spades."
He says Tugendhat showed those qualities in the military, Parliament and while serving his Tonbridge and Malling constituents.