Sajid Javid has warned fellow Tories of 1997-style “oblivion” unless they change course as he launched his leadership campaign, saying: “Voters have lost faith in us.”

The former health secretary cast himself as the most experienced candidate in the race – having held two of the three big offices of state – and the only one with a detailed economic plan for recovery.

Urging the party to pick a leader with “integrity”, Mr Javid pointed to the 1997 landslide defeat and said: “I fear that party was on a trajectory to the same electoral oblivion.

“This is a wake up and smell the coffee moment,” he said, adding: “Sleaze, scandal, internal warfare. We’ve seen this movie before, we know how it ends.”

But Mr Javid faced difficult questions over his past tax-avoiding non-dom status – refusing to explain three times why he held the status and whether it was in a tax haven.

He argued that, as an international banker, he had an “international job and travelled a lot”, claiming he had been “transparent” about his tax affairs, despite the unanswered questions.

Mr Javid also attacked the almost-vicious nature of the early campaign, with its “poisonous gossip" and “attack memos”, saying: “This isn’t House of Cards or Game of Thrones.”

And, asked about staying in Mr Johnson’s cabinet for so long, he replied: “Perhaps I should have left earlier. But I didn’t see anyone else leave any earlier than me,” In fact, the party chair Oliver Dowden quit before him.

He appeared to acknowledge his lack of charisma, a frequent criticism, saying: “No one is the full package. I know I’m not.”

But he pointed to the return of a strong team of people, adding: “If we can get back to seeing this job as the first among equals, we can transition from a team of rivals to an unrivalled team.”

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