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Reactions as it dawns on people Sunak or Truss will be next PM – as they come to blows to secure top job

"The next PM will either be Rishi Sunak, who lives in another world, or Liz Truss, who is on another planet."

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
2022-07-22 08:02
in Politics
Credit:PA

Credit:PA

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The final two vying to be the next prime minister have come to blows over their fiscal proposals, with Rishi Sunak warning against a “huge borrowing spree” as Liz Truss defended tax-cutting plans worth at least £30 billion a year.

The former chancellor did not pull any punches in an interview on Thursday evening, claiming the current evidence suggests the Conservatives would suffer a defeat at the next general election under his rival’s leadership.

Mr Sunak said he thought borrowing £30 billion for unfunded tax cuts would be “inflationary”, adding that going on a “huge borrowing spree” would only “make the situation worse”.

Polling

He told Tonight With Andrew Marr on LBC: “If you look at all the polling evidence that we have, and you see what that says, it’s pretty clear that I am the person that is best placed to defeat Keir Starmer in the next election.”

 
 

Asked if that meant the Conservative Party would likely be defeated in the next election if Ms Truss became leader, he replied: “That’s what all the evidence that we have today would show, and that’s what our members will need to consider.”

Earlier, Ms Truss defended her tax cut plans as “affordable”, as the economic policies of the two candidates came under scrutiny.

“What is not affordable is putting up taxes, choking off growth, and ending up in a much worse position,” she told broadcasters during a visit to Peterborough.

Mr Sunak was understood not to be envisaging cutting personal taxes until at least autumn next year to avoid fuelling inflation.

But Ms Truss, the Foreign Secretary, promised an emergency budget to reverse the national insurance hike immediately under her proposals to drive growth.

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The financial plans of the final candidates for prime minister were growing more divided as they battled for the votes of the Tory membership required to win the race for No 10.

Truss tax cuts

Robert Joyce, the deputy director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank, put Ms Truss’s tax cuts at “more than £30 billion per year – and possibly considerably more”.

The plans “mean higher borrowing or less public spending, or some combination”, he said, though their impact remains unclear because Ms Truss’s proposals are “yet to be fleshed out”.

“Without spending reductions, the tax promises would likely lead to the current fiscal rules being broken, and Ms Truss has hinted that the fiscal rules may change,” Mr Joyce added.

Ms Truss insisted she was not planning “public spending reductions” despite pledging vast tax cuts.

Foreign Secretary and Tory leadership candidate, Liz Truss speaks to the press during a visit to the children’s charity, Little Miracles in Peterborough, to speak about the cost-of-living pressures and her vision to ease the burden on families
Liz Truss speaks to the press during a visit to the children’s charity Little Miracles in Peterborough (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

She told reporters in Peterborough: “What I am planning is public service reforms to get more money to the front line, to cut out a lot of the bureaucracy that people face…

“I’m certainly not talking about public spending cuts. What I’m talking about is raising growth.”

Asked on LBC “what would be the effect on inflation of borrowing £30 billion for unfunded tax cuts”, Mr Sunak said: “I think it would be inflationary.”

He added: “I’m worried about the inflation that we’ve got at the moment becoming embedded and lasting far longer.

“That’s going to be so damaging for everyone listening because it’s going to erode all the savings that they’ve worked really hard to build up.

 
 

“It’s going to push up their mortgage rates if interest rates have to go up very high to deal with (it).”

In his pitch to Conservative members after MPs selected the final two candidates, Mr Sunak argued that only he is capable of beating Labour in a general election.

But Ms Truss hit back by saying the Tories would struggle to win under the current economic policy written by Mr Sunak when he was in No 11.

Mr Sunak told LBC he wants to “restore trust in Government” as prime minister.

He said his life would be easier if he vowed to do “this lovely sounding thing and this lovely sounding thing”, but argued that would not be leadership.

Conservative leadership election timetable
(PA Graphics)

“I think it would damage trust, because part of rebuilding trust is for the Government and politicians to deliver the things that they say, and sitting here promising you a bunch of things that I don’t think are right or deliverable would be wrong,” he said.

Mr Sunak was the parliamentary party’s favourite, winning 137 votes to Ms Truss’s 113 among Tory MPs.

But bookmakers placed the Foreign Secretary as the frontrunner, with early indications suggesting she is more popular with Tory members ahead of a summer of campaigning.

Lord Frost

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, former Brexit Minister Lord Frost again offered his support to Ms Truss, arguing that Britain cannot “tax our way out of deficit and debt”.

Foreign Secretary and Tory leadership candidate, Liz Truss celebrates with her supporters in the Houses of Parliament after making it along with Rishsi Sunak to the final two candidates to be Prime minister, London
Bookmakers have placed Liz Truss ahead of her rival in the Tory leadership contest (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

He added: “We need to grow the size of the cake and end the poisonous politics of interest groups and identity politics, which sets one group against another.

“The only way out of this trap is to focus ruthlessly on increasing the productive capacity of our own economy. That will need the kind of measures that Liz Truss is setting out.”

A small, unrepresentative poll of 730 members on Wednesday and Thursday again saw Ms Truss in the lead.

Some 49% of respondents said they would back the Foreign Secretary while 31% chose Mr Sunak.

The rest were undecided or said they would not vote.

Foreign Secretary and Tory leadership candidate Liz Truss speaks to the press during a visit to the children’s charity Little Miracles in Peterborough
Foreign Secretary and Tory leadership candidate Liz Truss during a visit to the children’s charity Little Miracles in Peterborough (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The pair battled to win the support of local politicians on Thursday when they took part in a private hustings for the Conservative Councillors’ Association.

They will tour the UK to take part in 12 hustings for the Tory members who will vote for their next leader, with the result being announced on September 5.

Reaction

The realisation that it will be one of these two people running our country has left people more than a bit underwhelmed:

1.

Liz Truss, god bless her, has the demeanour of someone who’s accidentally scoffed an edible and is trying to make it through a workplace appraisal.

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) July 20, 2022

2.

The next PM will either be Rishi Sunak, who lives in another world, or Liz Truss, who is on another planet.

— Parody Rishi Sunak (@Parody_PM) July 20, 2022

3.

So…Pinky and the Brain don't go head-to-head till Monday night. Plenty of time to not make any slip ups and not rip each other to pieces then… pic.twitter.com/4PiuQXX5UD

— Stephen McGann (@StephenMcGann) July 20, 2022

4.

Love this Team Sunak blathering about a "historic fifth term", as if they've been in power a quarter century rather than 12 years. It's only historic in that the party now shits itself in public at two year intervals.

— Ian Dunt (@IanDunt) July 21, 2022

5.

obsessed with this liz truss photoshoot where they've styled her as if the joker started shopping in LK bennett pic.twitter.com/dpVqsdzUSN

— Róisín Lanigan (@rosielanners) July 20, 2022

6.

I'm looking forward to only being the second worst Prime Minister in history. pic.twitter.com/zzB1y3unQt

— Parody Rishi Sunak (@Parody_PM) July 21, 2022

7.

Oh god. Mordaunt is out. Looks like it will be #PoundlandMaggie after all. #PoundlandMaggie #LizTruss #ToryLeadershipContest pic.twitter.com/xAEBZRwH5I

— Miffy (@miffythegamer) July 20, 2022

8.

Rishi Sunak is The Apprentice candidate who seems competent but loses every task by a record amount while Liz Truss is The Apprentice candidate who everyone knows is fucking awful but wins it because the people who decide who wins it are senile old codgers

— dave ❄️ 🥕 🧻 (@mrdavemacleod) July 21, 2022

9.

Truss v Sunak!

Surely Starmer’s team are getting in the beers tonight. 🍺

— Mike Galsworthy (@mikegalsworthy) July 20, 2022

10.

a Liz Truss Government with Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg is the stuff dreams are made of ie. complete Tory annihilation at the next GE 🥳

— dave ❄️ 🥕 🧻 (@mrdavemacleod) July 20, 2022

11.

Why does Rishi Sunak want to be PM? He is rich. His wife is rich. They could buy an island filled with ice-cream, trampolines and gold plated handjob machines but no he wants to arse around on nonsense island guiding the circus of twats. He's a psychopath.

— TechnicallyRon (On all the platforms) (@TechnicallyRon) July 20, 2022

12.

The Sunak and Truss camps set out their strategies. Sunak: talk as much as possible. Truss: don’t.

— Armando Iannucci (@Aiannucci) July 21, 2022

13.

Getting excited for Liz Truss. Or Radon as she is now known. She's a gas. But she's inert.

— John Crace (@JohnJCrace) July 20, 2022

14.

In a way, it will be a relief to have Sunak as PM, moving away from the narcissism of the Johnson years, back to the more traditional rule by a psychopath

— Frankie Boyle Updates (@frankieboyle) July 21, 2022

15.

I don’t believe Rishi Sunak is benign or stupid. I don’t believe Liz Truss is benign. On balance I think I want an idiot trying to do bad deeds more than a competent billionaire succeeding to do bad deeds. But what a fucking choice.

— Grace Petrie (@gracepetrie) July 20, 2022

Related: PMQs – Where the only question is, why have you not f**ked off yet?

Tags: headlineLiz TrussRishi Sunak

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