He was eliminated in the third round of parliamentary voting, and subsequently endorsed Liz Truss, serving in her government as Minister of State for Security.

Tugendhat then did a Master's degree course in Islamic studies at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and learnt Arabic in Yemen.

[23] At the snap 2017 United Kingdom general election, Tugendhat was re-elected, increasing his share of the vote to 63.6 per cent, but seeing his majority decrease to 23,508.

[28] Other significant enquiries have covered: the implications of China's growing role in the international system,[29] India–United Kingdom relations,[30] and the Responsibility to Protect.

[32] The report criticised the law firm Linklaters for its unwillingness to give evidence to the committee about the nature of working in the Russian Federation at that time.

[33] At the 2019 general election, Tugendhat was again re-elected, seeing his share of the vote fall slightly to 62.8 per cent, but with an increased majority of 26,941.

[6] In this role he continued taking a hawkish position on the People's Republic of China and, equally, the PRC has maintained travel bans against him.

[43] In June 2023, Tugendhat decided to join official talks with a government minister of Taiwan, breaking convention on the topic of mutual security interests.

[45] With security within his portfolio, Tugendhat was left to decide on permitting protests during the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla, which he allowed.

[48][49] The following day Tugendhat's team were forced to change his campaign slogan after journalists and social media users discovered that the first letter of each line spelled out "TURD".

[54] During the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, Tugendhat said he did not support the UK leaving the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

[55][56] In October 2023, he warned that withdrawal would have negative consequences for the Good Friday Agreement, the Windsor Framework and devolved administrations in the UK.

"[59] Tugendhat supported remaining in the EU at the referendum of June 2016; however, he has since described Brexit as a revolution which cannot be overturned, commenting in July 2022: "There is no way back into the European Union.

[61] He described how his military experience had drawn him into politics and outlined several ways in which the government could encourage businesses to better serve the communities in which they operate.

[62] In September 2024 during the leadership election, Tugendhat pledged to implement a 100,000 annual net migration cap citing pressure on housing, infrastructure and public services.

[64] In March 2024, Tugendhat called on his party leader and prime minister Rishi Sunak to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP.

[66] Tugendhat called Labour's plans to add 20% VAT to private school fees from 1 January 2025 "one of the most vindictive policies to come out of a British government in generations".

"[70] In the wake of the Fall of Kabul in August 2021, Tugendhat described the event in The Times as Britain's "biggest foreign policy disaster since Suez".

"[72] In April 2020, Tugendhat founded the China Research Group alongside fellow Conservative MP Neil O'Brien.

[75][76] Tugendhat is considered to be a China hawk in the House of Commons, alongside Bob Seely and Sir Iain Duncan Smith.

[77] In August 2020, Tugendhat received a letter at his home address, sent from Hong Kong and containing a prayer regarding his criticism of China's policies.

He was subsequently banned from entering China, Hong Kong and Macau, and Chinese citizens and institutions are prohibited from doing business with him.

He condemned the United Nations Security Council for its official criticism of Israel's building settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

[83] In January 2017, he wrote that the Israeli–Palestinian conflict "doesn't matter" to the protestors of the Arab Spring, and concluded: "Why was it [Israel-Palestine] more pressing than other disputed territories such as Western Sahara, Kashmir or Tibet?