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Tom Tugendhat has been criticised for his “deeply distasteful” remarks, after he said that taking part in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was “the naughtiest thing he’s ever done”.
When he was asked the question as part of an interview with The Spectator alongside his fellow leadership contenders, Mr Tugendhat said: “I invaded a country once which was a few years ago, 2003; I was part of the invading army in Iraq.”
Evie Aspinall, the director of the British Foreign Policy Group, accused the Tory leadership candidate of “making light” of conflict.
She said: “This response makes me deeply uncomfortable. Describing invading a country as ‘naughty’ is deeply distasteful and makes light of conflict at a time of major global instability.”
Mr Tugendhat, who also served in Afghanistan, survived being shot twice in a “friendly fire” incident while serving in Iraq.
His comments come as Israel and Hezbollah exchange fire across the Lebanese border, while the UK has sent around 700 troops to Cyprus in case an emergency evacuation is required.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer warned on Wednesday that the Middle East is on the brink of all-out war, before travelling to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Mr Tugendhat gave the same answer to The Spectator during the 2022 leadership race.
The question was popularised in 2017 when the then prime minister Theresa May confessed in an interview on ITV’s Tonight programme that the naughtiest thing she had ever done was “running through fields of wheat” as a child.
Asked the same question as Mr Tugendhat, fellow leadership contender James Cleverly said: “It’s all on a [BBC] interview I did with John Pienaar in 2015,” referring to an interview in which he admitted to having smoked cannabis at university and watched online pornography.
Robert Jenrick said he was “actually quite naughty as a child and teenager”, adding: “A lot of the things I did probably should not enter the public domain. I’ll give you one, which, I’m afraid, is by no means the naughtiest thing I did.
“After a few too many drinks, as a teenager, I did accept a bet to climb the Christmas tree in Wolverhampton’s city centre. That did not end well.”
Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch said: “I don’t care to say. It definitely is not running through fields of wheat, but I’m not going to tell you the naughtiest thing I’ve ever done.”
