Tom Tugendhat has said he would be willing to leave the European convention on human rights as he joined the race to succeed Rishi Sunak as the next Conservative leader. The former security minister – who becomes the second Tory MP to announce their candidacy after the former home secretary, James Cleverly – appeared to be pitching to the right to win over party members. While he is regarded as being on the one nation wing of the party, and has previously warned against leaving the ECHR, recent history has shown that the Tory grassroots tend to opt for the most rightwing candidate. Tugendhat warned last October that leaving the convention could have consequences for the Good Friday agreement, the Windsor framework and devolved administrations. “There are many treaties around the world; if you want to leave one, please explain to me how you’re going to address the gaps that they create,” he said at the time. “These are really big questions and don’t throw around words unless you can answer the questions.” But in an article for the Telegraph on Wednesday night, Tugendhat indicated he would be prepared to leave the ECHR, saying that if institutions made it harder to control the UK’s borders, the country would have to “exempt ourselves from them” or “leave their jurisdiction”. He suggested this was the “commonsense Conservative position” to take, in an apparent bid to take on likely rightwing rivals including Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, who are both expected to argue the UK should leave the ECHR. He also pitched to the right on other key issues for Tory members including gender identity and net zero. The former army officer argued defence spending should increase to 3% of GDP. Tugendhat said the Tories suffered their historic election defeat because they had lost the trust of British voters after failing to deliver on their promises of lower taxes and cutting immigration. He said the party could win the next election if it regained that trust. “Clever people have already written a million complicated words about why we lost that election, but I can do it in one: trust. We lost the trust of the British people, because we didn’t do what we said we would,” he wrote. “I am not just running to be the next leader of the Conservative party. I am running to be the next Conservative prime minister. That is what this leadership election is all about: winning.” Earlier on Wednesday, the shadow health secretary, Victoria Atkins, also on the moderate end of the Tory party, ruled herself out of the running. The party set out its timetable for the extended leadership contest on Monday, with nominations closing next week. Tory MPs will reduce them to a shortlist of four candidates in September who will take to the stage at the party conference in October to make their pitch to grassroots members. After that, MPs will narrow down the list to two candidates who will be put to a vote by the membership. In the last two leadership contests, Boris Johnson beat Jeremy Hunt and Liz Truss beat Rishi Sunak, who later became prime minister without a full contest. He is planning to stay on as interim leader until the result is announced on 2 November.