Sajid Javid has warned Conservatives the party faces “electoral oblivion” if it does not change.
Launching his Tory leadership bid on Monday afternoon, the former health secretary said “perhaps” he should have resigned from Boris Johnson’s government sooner than he did.
“Too many people now believe that Labour are fit to govern. Some of them say that Labour are more competent and even more likely to cut taxes,” he said.
Javid’s resignation last week, minutes before Rishi Sunak did the same, kick started the move to oust the prime minister.
Defending his decision to stay in Johnson’s cabinet for as long as he did, Javid said: “I did think about leaving earlier than I did.
“Perhaps I should have left earlier. But I didn’t see anyone else leave any earlier than me.”
He also accused other leadership campaigns of spreading “poisonous gossip” about each other.
“This isn’t House Of Cards or Game Of Thrones. And the people who are here just because they enjoy the game are in the wrong place,” he said.
Javid said the party was in a position “very familiar” to those who remembered Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997.
“The way things were going recently, I feared our party was on a trajectory to the same electoral oblivion once again,” he said.
He said: “We cannot be complacent about the situation we are now in. This is a ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ moment.”
Javid is one of 11 candidates vying to succeed Johnson as party leader and prime minister.
Conservative Party leadership candidates:
Kemi Badenoch - former equalities minister
Suella Braverman - attorney general
Rehman Chishti - Foreign Office minister
Jeremy Hunt - health committee chairman and former cabinet minister
Sajid Javid - former health secretary and chancellor
Penny Mordaunt - international trade minister and former defence secretary
Grant Shapps - transport secretary
Rishi Sunak - former chancellor
Liz Truss - foreign secretary
Tom Tugendhat - foreign affairs committee chairman
Nadhim Zahawi - chancellor