Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick has said the Conservatives suffered a “devastating” general election defeat because the party failed to deliver on its promises to the public.
He told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme the failure to cut migration was “at the heart” of the election result but he also blamed high taxes and “broken” public services.
Mr Jenrick, who is on the right of the party and has been touted as a potential Tory leadership contender, did not rule out running to replace Rishi Sunak.
However, he said the first step was getting “the right diagnosis of what’s gone wrong” and talk of leadership bids was “self-indulgent” at this stage.
Also appearing on the programme, shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins, agreed “this weekend is not about leadership”.
Ms Atkins did not rule out running herself but added: “We need to show the public that we understand they have sent us some very, very loud messages, that we are listening, that we are reflecting and then we as a party need to get together and unite and work out what we want for the future.”
Ms Atkins, who spent just over six months as health secretary in Mr Sunak’s government, is on the moderate wing of the party and has been tipped as a potential future leader.
Mr Jenrick, who resigned from Mr Sunak’s government last year because he believed his Rwanda legislation did not go far enough, said: “The reason that we lost the trust of millions of people across the country is not because we were too left wing or right wing, or had this slogan or that slogan.
“But fundamentally because we failed to deliver on the promises we made to the British public.”
The MP for Newark cited low economic growth, high taxes, the quality of NHS services and “above all” the failure to secure the country’s borders and control migration, as examples of broken promises.
Mr Jenrick pointed to the loss of votes to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party as evidence that migration “was at the heart” of the Tory defeat.
Reform, which had called for a freeze on non-essential immigration, won five seats and more than four million votes in the election.
The party also came second in 98 constituencies, in many cases pushing the Tories into third place.
Mr Jenrick said that in two-thirds of seats lost by the Tories, including those won by the Liberal Democrats, the margin of defeat was less than the Reform vote.
Asked if he thought he had what it takes to be Tory leader, Mr Jenrick said: “I honestly don’t think that three days on from a general election, in which we’ve just lost so many of our friends and colleagues, that it is right to have self-indulgent conversations like this.”
Mr Jenrick said he would support a longer leadership campaign so the party could “think very carefully about what’s happened”.
In her interview, Ms Atkins called for her party to be “unified”, arguing that the conversation must not move away from the key issues for voters like healthcare and immigration.
She told the BBC there was still a “real opportunity” for the Tories to recover, as Labour’s support was “spread very thinly”.
The MP for Louth and Horncastle, who saw her majority slashed from more than 27,000 to 5,506, claimed the country was still “instinctively Conservative”.
“[The public] want lower taxes, they want to build a better future for their children, they want us to help them thrive in their personal lives and in their livelihoods,” she said.
The Conservatives now have only 121 MPs – the lowest number in the party’s history – after losing 251 seats in a Labour landslide.
Mr Sunak has vowed to stay on as leader until arrangements for selecting his successor are in place.
The timetable for this remains unclear and no Tories have confirmed they will run to replace him yet.
Party grandees are expected to meet next week to decide the process by which the party will choose the next leader.
Other figures tipped to run include former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who blamed the Tory defeat on an “idiotic” campaign strategy, as well as high taxes and immigration.
On Saturday, she said she had “no announcements” on whether she would run, saying the party needed to “take our time” after a “really bad result”.
Others mentioned as possible leadership contenders include former ministers Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, and Tom Tugendhat.
The pool of potential candidates has been reduced by the Tories’ disastrous election performance, with mooted contenders Grant Shapps and Penny Mordaunt among 12 cabinet ministers losing their seats.
Two-time previous candidate Jeremy Hunt, who served as Mr Sunak’s chancellor and narrowly held his seat, is reportedly not thinking of running again.