Ted Cruz vows to rip up gun regulations on his first day in office

The Texas senator is seeking to reach out to conservative voters

Mr Cruz said he would defend the constitution (AP)

Ted Cruz - a man positioned as the most conservative of the candidates seeking the US presidency - has said that on his first day in office he would tear up Barack Obama’s efforts to regulate access to weapons.

Polls suggest that Mr Cruz, who won the Republican caucus in Iowa, pushing Donald Trump into second place, is struggling to connect in the same way in New Hampshire, where there are fewer evangelicals and conservatives. Yet there are no signs that he is changing his campaign or altering his strident appeal to his core supporters.

Speaking at a rally in an engineering company in Barrington the day before New Hampshire holds its primary, Mr Cruz claimed he would defend the US Constitution unlike any other candidate. He said that on his first day on office he would rip up the executive orders passed by Mr Obama, including a measure introduced in January designed to regulate access to firearms.

Ted Cruz, speaking in New Hampshire, won 28 per cent of the vote, compared with Trump’s 24 per cent (AP)

“You have to have a president who will defend all of the Bill of Rights,” he said to loud cheers. “The first of those is the First Amendment - the right to free speech and especially, especially, especially the the right to religious liberty.”

He said that Mr Obama had used “illegal executive actions to try and undermine our individual right to own and bear arms”.

He added: “The first thing I will do on my first day in office will be to rescind each of those illegal executive actions.”

The most recent average of polls as collated by Real Clear Politics suggest that Mr Cruz is currently trailing in third place behind businessman and Donald Trump and Florida Senator Marco Rubio - with each on 31.6 points, 14.6 points and 13 points respectively.

Ohio Governor John Kasich is placed fourth on 12.4 points - though at least one poll has him in second place - while Jeb Bush is sitting in fifth position on 9.8 points. Other reports suggest both of these moderate governors, or former governors, are seeing a late rise in support, especially after Mr Rubio was considered to have a poor performance in Saturday night’s Republican debate where he appeared to freeze in the headlights to many questions. A number of commentators have suggested this hurt Mr Rubio in the eyes of those who question whether he has the experience to make it to the White House.

Mr Trump said over the weekend that he believed he won the debate, and claimed that “twittersphere” agreed with him. He had made headlines after Saturday’s event by saying he supported water-boarding and “a hell of a lot more”.

“Did you hear my answer on water-boarding? When I thought I about water-boarding I thought ‘we’re living in medieval times’,” he said, speaking in a sports arena at Plymouth State University.

“They are chopping off heads. In the Wild West you used to get shot, but they did not cut off heads.”

He said as president he would be ready to authorise a lot more than water-boarding. He said it was not politically correct to say so, “but we don’t want to be politically correct.”

Among those who came out to see Ted Cruz on a frigid workday morning were Kathleen Casey, a housewife, and her friend Nancy Herbert, who was retired.

Ms Herbert said she believed the most importantt challenge for the country was the creation of more jobs. She said there was simply “too many people out of work”.

For Ms Casey, the most important issue was immigration, something that Mr Cruz has made his own.

“Immigration - for every reason,” she said. "Security, safeguarding he country. We cannot have open borders.”

When it was pointed out that the US was a nations of immigrants, he said: “We have a history of immigrants but of people who want to be Americans.”

Mr Cruz declined to take questions from the media. Yet he waited behind to shake hands, chat and shake hands with each of his supporters who wanted to do so.

“Ok, thanks everyone,” he said, as he left the building.