Liz Truss criticised Rishi Sunak’s record on taxation and the former chancellor claimed he was the only one who could beat Labour as the leadership contenders turned their focus to winning over Tory members.
The Foreign Secretary vowed to bring in an emergency budget to swiftly axe the national insurance rise if she wins the race to be the next prime minister.
Mr Sunak made his own pitch to win over the Conservative membership who will crown the winner by arguing he could win an election, whereas Ms Truss could not.
Tweet
She is in fighting mode and set about taking her battle to Twitter.
But as you can see it didn’t start very well.
She wrote: “I’m ready to hit the ground from day one,” rather than, one suspects, ‘hit the ground running.’
It was corrected pretty quickly, but it was too late, it had been spotted.
You feel that Liz vs Rishi contest could be set up for more mishaps, maybe in a TV debate.
Now Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have signed up to a Sky News debate after an earlier televised appearance was cancelled in the wake of fiery clashes between the candidates.
The broadcaster secured an hour-long head to head between the final two vying for the Tory leadership to take place on August 4, and to be hosted by broadcaster Kay Burley.
The pair had earlier declined to take part in a debate Sky scheduled for the wider candidates, forcing the broadcaster to cancel its plans with a day’s notice.
On Wednesday, Mr Sunak tweeted: “Looking forward to it!”
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