From Donald Trump’s “Make America great again” (Maga) to Margaret Thatcher’s “There is no alternative” (Tina), political acronyms have long distilled what leaders stand for. Tom Tugendhat has now inadvertently created his own four-letter calling card: Turd.
The Tory leadership hopeful briefly adopted the slogan “Together we can, Unite the party. Rebuild trust. Defeat Labour” when he launched his bid on Wednesday. A graphic breaking it down into four lines was visible on his campaign website.
Eagle-eyed social media users spotted that the first letter of each line spelled out the acronym Turd.
By Thursday morning, it had been changed to: “Together we can, Unite the party. Rebuild Trust. Win back the country.”
Sources close to the former security minister’s leadership team told the Telegraph that online graphics are regularly altered as imagery and messaging are perfected during the early stages of a campaign, adding that this change had nothing to do with the inadvertent acronym.
Tugendhat became the second Conservative MP to formally announce their candidacy for the party’s leadership on Wednesday, after the former home secretary James Cleverly. Tugendhat, a figure from the Tories’ One Nation group, appeared to pitch to the party’s rightwing membership in a column announcing his candidacy, saying he would be willing to leave the European convention on human rights (ECHR).
He had said in October that leaving the convention could have consequences for the Good Friday agreement, the Windsor framework and devolved administrations.
Speaking to GB News, Tugendhat said he had a “track record of delivery” for the British people. He denied that his change in position on the ECHR was political opportunism, saying: “No, I’ve been very, very clear I am prepared to make any decision that will keep the British people safe.”
The former immigration minister Robert Jenrick submitted his nomination on Thursday.
The party set out its timetable for the extended leadership contest on Monday, stating that nominations will close next week. Tory MPs will reduce them to a shortlist of four candidates in September, who will each make their pitch to grassroots members at the party conference in October.
