Rishi Sunak, Former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer - and now UK PM

[Manunited18]

That’s not all, he forgot to hedge UK’s sovereign debt when he announced the Furlough scheme, which means UK is paying even more in interest payments.

Completely incompetent, fraudulent, and disastrous individual.

Yep. But he seems to be In prime position to be the next PM even after these contraversial policies.

 

[Technics 1210]

Yep. But he seems to be In prime position to be the next PM even after these contraversial policies.

I have a feeling more dirt on him will be released in coming weeks. The snake, if PM, will not only destroy the country, but hand victory to the Loser & Lunatic parties at the next GE.

Here’s to austerity beyond 2030.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Yep. But he seems to be In prime position to be the next PM even after these contraversial policies.

Only if you listen to his Richmond voters who don't really represent the mass ranks of Britain at all.

 

[Manunited18]

Only if you listen to his Richmond voters who don't really represent the mass ranks of Britain at all.

Pretty certain when voting for the PM it's down to the party members and not the voters. He seems to be highly regarded amongst the party members.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Pretty certain when voting for the PM it's down to the party members and not the voters. He seems to be highly regarded amongst the party members.

Technically he could become PM through the back door, doesn't change the fact the British people won't have approved it.

 

[Manunited18]

Technically he could become PM through the back door, doesn't change the fact the British people won't have approved it.

Yep. If he does get elected as the PM by his peers, come General elections the British public will burn the Conservatives, no doubt about that.

 

[Technics 1210]

Not technically, but legally too.

Boris became PM in the same way, but called a GE and won by a 80+ majority and had a public mandate to follow through. BBC, ITV, SKY and the other lefty media outlets just wouldn't let Boris get on with the job. Sunak will end up torpedoing any chances of Tory re-election.

Lefty Lunacy Liberalism is what is destroying the country.

 

[silentkiller187]

Sunak: 'Johnson one of the most remarkable people I've ever met'

Rishi Sunak opens up his pitch to be leader by saying he is not looking to demonise Boris Johnson.

The start of Mr Sunak's campaign was introduced by Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, who talked up the former chancellor's Brexit credentials.

The Richmond (Yorks) MP says that while he disagreed with Mr Johnson on numerous issues, and he resigned because his government was "no longer working", he will not take part in a "rewriting of history that seeks to demonise Boris Johnson".

Mr Sunak also says he wants to run a "positive campaign".

He goes on to talk up his Conservative principles, such as championing hard work, patriotism, love of family and an "unshakable belief that we can build a better future".

The former chancellor, who says the country needs to have a "grown up conversation" about the state of the country, says he will cut taxes - but that inflation needs to be brought to heel first.

Speaking about how he plans to go forward, Mr Sunak says he wants to focus on things that "actually wok" rather than "what sounds good".

He sums up his message as being to "tackle inflation, grow the economy, and cut taxes".

 

[MenInG]

Jacob Rees-Mogg, a leading supporter of Liz Truss, has said he would not accept a Cabinet job from Rishi Sunak as he accused the former chancellor of "disloyalty".

Mr Rees-Mogg, the minister for Brexit opportunities, said he "could not possibly support" Mr Sunak if he wins the Tory leadership contest because of his "behaviour towards Boris Johnson".

Asked if he would accept a role in a Cabinet led by Mr Sunak, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “No, of course I wouldn’t. I believe his behaviour towards Boris Johnson, his disloyalty, means that I could not possibly support him and he wouldn’t want me in his Cabinet anyway.”

Mr Rees-Mogg has been a vocal critic of Mr Sunak in recent days and this morning he claimed the former chancellor had made decisions that were “of the left rather than of the right” when he was in post.

 

[MenInG]

Ex-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has given his backing to former Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the race to be Conservative leader and prime minister.

Mr Hunt was eliminated from the contest after failing to get enough votes, along with Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Hunt said Mr Sunak was "one of the most decent people" he had met in British politics.

Reflecting on his own defeat, Mr Hunt said: "Politics is about momentum, I'm afraid I didn't have it this time."

In the last Conservative leadership election in 2019, Mr Hunt came second to Boris Johnson.

In an interview with BBC political editor Chris Mason, the one-time leadership hopeful said it was a "privilege" to run to be prime minister but added: "You only get one chance to do that, my chance was really in 2019 - politics moves on."

BBC

 

[MenInG]

Half a world away from the political drama in London, many Indians are closely following the twists and turns of who replaces Boris Johnson as British prime minister, curious to see how two candidates with Indian ancestry fare.

Rishi Sunak, the bookmakers' favourite to prevail, and Suella Braverman are campaigning for the Conservative party leadership and have made reference to the opportunities Britain gave members of minorities like them.

If either were to win the race for the premiership, they would be the first prime minister of Indian origin in the United Kingdom.

In both cases, their Indian families migrated to Britain in the 1960s in search of better lives. Britain ruled India for about 200 years before the South Asian country gained independence in 1947 after a prolonged freedom struggle.

"It will be a great feeling to see an Indian as the PM of a country which very ruthlessly ruled India for a very long time!" said a Twitter user named Emon Mukherjee.

There are around 1.4 million Indians in Britain, making them its single largest ethnic minority, and the two countries enjoy friendly relations. Bilateral trade stood at 21.5 billion pounds ($25.55 billion) in 2020-21.

Leading Indian industrialist Anand Mahindra joined a steady stream of social media reaction to the possibility of a British prime minister with Indian heritage.

He shared a digitally altered photograph of 10 Downing Street, the prime minister's official residence, with its famous black door adorned with marigolds and mango leaves, symbols of an auspicious beginning in the Hindu religion.

Some Twitter users have run pictures of Sunak under the slogan "The Empire Strikes Back", while Indian newspapers have covered the contest unusually closely.

Sunak, 42, is the son-in-law of Indian billionaire N. R. Narayana Murthy, founder of Indian outsourcing giant Infosys Ltd .

CONTROVERSY

That connection threatened to dent his popularity in Britain after it was revealed that his wife, Murthy's daughter, had not been paying British tax on her foreign income through her "non-domiciled" status, which is available to foreign nationals who do not regard Britain as their permanent home.

Akshata Murthy later said she would start to pay British tax on her global income.

Murthy is an Indian citizen and owns a 0.9% stake in Infosys. She and Sunak entered The Sunday Times UK Rich List at number 222 with a reported net worth of 730 million pounds, the Sunday Times newspaper reported in May.

Murthy's family, based in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, has largely avoided discussing Sunak's political journey, and did not respond to a request for comment.

Sunak's colleague Braverman, currently Britain's attorney general and also in the race to succeed Johnson, was born into a Christian family of Indian origin. Her parents migrated to Britain in the 1960s from Kenya and Mauritius.

She has previously spoken about her parents, saying they came to Britain with nothing.

In 2017, Braverman posted on Facebook that her mother was awarded the British Empire Medal for 45 years of service in the National Health Service as a nurse and for voluntary work abroad.

"It was Britain that gave them hope, security and opportunity and this country has afforded me incredible opportunities in education and my career, and I owe a debt of gratitude to this country," Braverman said in a recent speech.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is another recent example of a politician of Indian origin who made it big abroad. Residents of her ancestral village in southern India celebrated her inauguration with firecrackers and gifts of food.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2365888/ancestral-ties-india-avidly-watching-british-leadership-race

 

[James]

Ex-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has given his backing to former Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the race to be Conservative leader and prime minister.

Mr Hunt was eliminated from the contest after failing to get enough votes, along with Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Hunt said Mr Sunak was "one of the most decent people" he had met in British politics.

Reflecting on his own defeat, Mr Hunt said: "Politics is about momentum, I'm afraid I didn't have it this time."

In the last Conservative leadership election in 2019, Mr Hunt came second to Boris Johnson.

In an interview with BBC political editor Chris Mason, the one-time leadership hopeful said it was a "privilege" to run to be prime minister but added: "You only get one chance to do that, my chance was really in 2019 - politics moves on."

BBC

Sunak has Hunt’s endorsement lol.

Nobody wants that.

 

[James]

Up to 101 votes amongst Tory MPs.

Mourdant has 83.

Looking like the final two.

 

[Robert]

Jacob Rees-Mogg, a leading supporter of Liz Truss, has said he would not accept a Cabinet job from Rishi Sunak as he accused the former chancellor of "disloyalty".

No loss.

 

[Technics 1210]

Sunak has Hunt’s endorsement lol.

Nobody wants that.

Hunt is a joke, a trojan Remainer!

 

[MenInG]

London: As the race to become Britain's next prime minister gained pace, caretaker premier Boris Johnson has reportedly told his allies to back "anyone but Rishi Sunak", according to a media report on Friday.

Johnson, who resigned as the leader of the ruling Conservative Party on July 7, has been urging defeated Tory leadership candidates not to back former chancellor Sunak, who is widely blamed for Johnson's loss of support among his own party members, The Times newspaper reported.

Johnson, who has said he will not endorse any leadership candidates or publicly intervene in the contest, is believed to have held conversations with failed contenders to succeed him and urged that Sunak should not become the prime minister.

A source close to one of the conversations said the current prime minister appeared most keen on Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, endorsed by his fiercest cabinet allies, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries.

Johnson is also reportedly open to Penny Mordaunt, the junior trade minister, succeeding him instead of Sunak.

According to the report, caretaker Prime Minister Johnson and his camp are running an "anyone but Rishi" hidden campaign after feeling betrayed over the former Chancellor's resignation which precipitated his exit from 10 Downing Street.

"The whole No.10 [Downing Street] team hates Rishi. It's personal. It's vitriolic. They don't blame Saj [Sajid Javid] for bringing him down. They blame Rishi. They think he was planning this for months," the newspaper quoted a source as saying.

Sunak, who was the winner of the first two rounds of voting by Tory members of Parliament, will appear for a series of televised debates over the weekend with his remaining opponents -- Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, former minister Kemi Badenoch and Tory backbencher Tom Tugendhat.

An ally of Johnson rejected the claim that he wants "anyone but Rishi" to win but admitted that the outgoing prime minister harboured resentment over Sunak's "betrayal".

Sunak's camp has, meanwhile, played down suggestions that his strong support does not extend beyond the Tory MPs.

"I think he really will start to connect and hopefully we can move away and offer a positive vision rather than this Conservative-on-Conservative attacks, which I really don't like," said Richard Holden, a Tory backbench MP backing Sunak.

NDTV

 

[Manunited18]

Very interesting debate, I think when it comes to clarity, Sunak has been right on the point, followed by Trust.

 

[SpiritOf1903]

Tom should be the winner. He won't.

Rishi is very mechanical. He talks like a hand puppet

 

[James]

Sunak owned that debate tbh. I don’t like him very much, but can’t deny that he was on top of every question and a level above his competition.

 

[Manunited18]

Sunak owned that debate tbh. I don’t like him very much, but can’t deny that he was on top of every question and a level above his competition.

I agree. He is in a league of his own compared to his rivals. But God help Britain, one of these will be the new PM!

 

[Manunited18]

For the current living and energy crisis we face currently and in to the future, I feel Liz Trust and her policies and ideas are best way forward for the current situation. People need relief now, Sunak on the other hand is consistent what he preaches but I'm not convinced he's the right person for the current situation.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Wasn't Sunak brought in by Boris to replace Javid back in the days before Covid? I seem to remember there was a crossover period which might just have been incidental.

 

[James]

<b>Conservative Party leadership: I'd tackle inflation before cutting tax, says Sunak</b>

Rishi Sunak has said he will "get a grip of inflation" before cutting tax, if he becomes prime minister.

The former chancellor - who resigned last week after losing faith in Boris Johnson - said inflation was the "number one economic priority".

"Once we've done that, I will deliver tax cuts," he said.

Meanwhile, Penny Mordaunt - who remains the bookies' favourite to be new PM - has defended her record as a minister, after criticism from rival camps.

"Look at my record, look at what I've done," Ms Mordaunt told the Daily Telegraph. "I do get stuff done."

Five Conservative MPs - Mr Sunak, Ms Mordaunt, Liz Truss, Kemi Badenoch, and Tom Tugendhat - are competing to become new party leader, and therefore prime minister.

Tory MPs will whittle the candidates down to two in votes next week, before party members choose the winner.

Mr Sunak was speaking on a visit to Teesside, the day after the five candidates had their first TV debate.

"I think the number one economic priority we face as a country is inflation," he told the media on his visit.

"I want to get a grip of inflation because inflation is what makes everybody poorer. If we don't get a grip of it now it will last longer and that is not a good thing.

"Once we've done that, I will deliver tax cuts."

Tax is one of the main dividing lines between the leadership candidates, with some - such as Ms Truss and Ms Mordaunt - promising immediate cuts.

Ms Truss said she would reverse April's national insurance rise, postpone planned increases in corporation tax, and scrap green levies.

Critics say the plans would cost more than £30bn a year - and at Friday's debate Mr Sunak said "borrowing your way out of inflation isn't a plan, it's a fairytale".

The rate of inflation - which measures how quickly prices are rising - is currently 9.1%, and the Bank of England has warned it could rise further.

Ms Mordaunt, meanwhile, has insisted she does "get stuff done" after criticism of her record.

Lord Frost - who worked with Ms Mordaunt when he negotiated the UK's exit from the EU - said he "would have grave reservations" about her as prime minister.

"I'm sorry to say this, she did not master the necessary detail in the negotiations last year," Lord Frost told Talk TV on Thursday.

But Ms Mordaunt - who has held a number of positions in government, including a brief spell as defence secretary - defended her record.

"Look at my record, look at what I've done," she told the Telegraph.

"The first job that I had in government, I managed to bring the firefighters' dispute, pensions dispute and strikes to an end. Other ministers didn't.

"People look at my record and people will have seen me at the dispatch box and people know who I am.

"That's why I'm taking support from across our party and that's why I'm topping every poll out in the country.”

Although Ms Mordaunt remains favourite with the bookmakers, a poll for the Sunday Telegraph suggested that - of those who had heard of all five candidates - Mr Sunak had the highest approval rating among Tory voters.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62192528

 

[MenInG]

A former leader of the Conservative Party has criticised Rishi Sunak's approach to the economy, accusing the former chancellor of fuelling inflation.

Speaking to Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme, Liz Truss backer Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the Treasury, overseen by Mr Sunak, has demonstrated a "failure" of monetary policy.

Sir Iain continued: "There is a genuine debate to be had here in the party about this because I think the government and the Treasury, through a peculiar orthodoxy, is bound on the wrong course which could seriously damage us over the next two years."

Raab probed on infamous PMQs wink - Politics latest

He added: "We've got an inflationary spiral going on, now we've got the war in Ukraine, that's made it even worse with regards to energy, but here in the UK we do have to bear some of the blame for the fact that we have inflation rising on top of all of that.

"And that's down to the Bank of England and the Treasury's failure over, I think, monetary policy.

"First of all, over a year ago the Bank actually kept on printing huge sums of money, which has inflated the economy as well as keeping interest rates low.

SKY

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Rishi destroyed the economy when he handed out loans like candy during the pandemic. We will pay for that for years to come.

 

[Manunited18]

Sunak is only for the upper class and billionaires. If he comes in to power there will be a obvious gulf in .

 

[MenInG]

Rishi Sunak - 115 (up by 14 from second round)

==

Could be PM Sunak soon!

 

[James]

Rishi Sunak - 115 (up by 14 from second round)

==

Could be PM Sunak soon!

Definitely going to coast into the Final Two.

It’s whether he can win over party members now.

 

[Robert]

Rishi destroyed the economy when he handed out loans like candy during the pandemic. We will pay for that for years to come.

Nobody would have done differently. He had to avoid another Wall St Crash / Great Depression.

The debt is currently manageable - Japan owes a lot more than we do - but future governments should to reduce it.

 

[Manunited18]

If Sunak comes in to power he will destroy Labour and Starmer in the next General elections. Regardless of Sunaks shortcomings, Starmer is useless.

 

[MenInG]

Latest:

Kemi Badenoch - 59

Penny Mordaunt - 92

Rishi Sunak - 118

Liz Truss - 86

 

[James]

Going to be Sunak vs one of the ladies then.

 

[MenInG]

Going to be Sunak vs one of the ladies then.

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss will go head-to-head to become the next leader of the Conservative Party after Penny Mordaunt became the latest candidate to be knocked out of the contest.

In the fifth and final round of voting by Tory MPs, the leadership contenders received the following support:

Penny Mordaunt - 105
Rishi Sunak - 137
Liz Truss - 113


Looking like PM Rishi soon

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Grateful that my colleagues have put their trust in me today. <br><br>I will work night and day to deliver our message around the country.<br><br>Join the team at <a href="https://t.co/3cXn1rFhca">https://t.co/3cXn1rFhca</a> <a href="https://t.co/ro612xDAcL">pic.twitter.com/ro612xDAcL</a></p>— Ready For Rishi (@RishiSunak) <a href="https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1549777868435120130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[MenInG]

Rishi Sunak, the Indian-origin former UK Chancellor, retained the lead in the fifth round of voting on Wednesday to succeed Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister. The race has now come down to just two, with UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss battling against Mr Sunak. Boris Johnson, the scandal-ridden outgoing leader, resigned earlier this month, triggering an unseemly fight within the ruling Conservative Party to replace him.

If Mr Sunak is chosen the Prime Minister, the UK will become sixth country when a person of Indian descent will be holding the highest position.

A comprehensive list has been released by Indiaspora, a US-based non-profit organisation representing the community globally.

Here are some prominent names on the list:

Antonio Costa, prime minister, Portugal
Mohamed Irfaan, president, Guyana
Pravind Jugnauth, prime minister, Mauritius
Prithvirajsing Roopun, president, Mauritius
Chandrikapersad Santokhi, president, Suriname
Kamala Harris, vice president, United States

In Mauritius, nine heads of state, including Mr Jugnauth and Mr Roopun, have been of Indian origin. Similarly, Suriname has seen five presidents from the community. Also, four heads of state in Guyana and three in Singapore were of Indian descent.

Apart from these countries, Trinidad & Tobago, Portugal, Malaysia, Fiji, Ireland and the Seychelles too have chosen an Indian-origin head of state.

Polls show both Ms Truss or Ms Mordaunt would beat Mr Sunak in the crucial vote scheduled later today, even though he has led previous rounds of voting by Members of British Parliament.

Whoever triumphs when the party vote is announced on September 5 will inherit some of the most difficult conditions in Britain in decades. Inflation is on course to hit 11 per cent annually, growth is stalling, industrial action is on the rise and the pound is near historic lows against the dollar.

NDTV

 

[James]

In a prime position. Will the Conservative Party members sign him off as PM though?

 

[Manunited18]

In a prime position. Will the Conservative Party members sign him off as PM though?

He has little chance, The Tory membership are in favour of Liz Trust.

 

[irfan]

he is a brown skinned Tony Blair, very dangerous.

 

[Technics 1210]

Sunak should be a member of the Labour party. He is a socialist cloaked in conservatism.

 

[shortbread]

Like I've said all along, it's PM Truss. UK is set to become a cheese and sausage exporting superpower!

 

[Robert]

In a prime position. Will the Conservative Party members sign him off as PM though?

He’s not right wing enough for them.

 

[MenInG]

Sunak: I'm the best person to defeat Starmer

Rishi Sunak has claimed the current evidence suggests the Tories would suffer a defeat at the next general election under Liz Truss's leadership.

The former chancellor 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."

Speaking on his rival Liz Truss's economic plans, he said if the government went on a "huge spending spree" it would "only make the situation worse" with inflation, adding that the country did not need "that kind of short-term growth".

He also said "promising things that can't be delivered" would damage trust with the public.

Explaining his aim for long-term growth, the former chancellor described his economic plan as "common sense Thatcherism".

And asked if further help for bills would come in the winter if bills continued to surge, he said he had proved in the past that "as and when the situation demands it I will act to help get people through it".

During the interview, Mr Sunak also said it was important to "make our Rwanda policy work".

"We do need to have control of our borders. When my grandparents came over, it was because the government decided they should come here," he said.

"At the same time we welcome the best and the brightest, we need to get a control of our borders. The Rwanda policy gives us the opportunity to solve that."

Addressing accusations of him being a "backstabber", Mr Sunak went on to say he was proud of many of the things he had achieved with Boris Johnson and was "sorry" he had to resign.

He added: "It got to a point when enough is enough. Everyone saw with the Chris Pincher situation and the economy."

Mr Sunak also said "one of the first" things he would do as prime minister would be to appoint an independent ethics adviser.

The post is vacant after Lord Geidt dramatically resigned in June, accusing Boris Johnson of proposing a "deliberate" breach of the ministerial code.

Asked if he would bring back Lord Geidt, Mr Sunak said he "probably" would because he thought he did a good job.

"I haven't spoken to him about it so I don't want to put him in an awkward position," he added.

 

[MenInG]

Rishi Sunak says he flew back from a government trip last December to stop the country going into a new COVID lockdown.

The former chancellor and Tory leadership candidate told LBC that the UK was "hours away from a press conference" announcing the measures due to the spread of the Omicron variant.

But he said he "fought very hard against the system" to stop the lockdown being introduced.

Politics Hub: Truss extends lead over Sunak with Tory membership

As 2021 came to a close, Omicron became the dominant variant in the country and cases rose quickly, with Boris Johnson advising people to exercise "caution" around the build up to Christmas and health officials urging the public to limit their contacts.

Rumours were abound that the government would bring in new restrictions as companies - especially in the hospitality sector - called for more support as people cancelled events.

But on 16 December, Mr Johnson said there was no order for people to cancel gatherings and ruled out any lockdown "by stealth".

Extreme wide angle image showing the northern and eastern parts of the UK Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster) in central London. Taken from Westminster Bridge.

What did the government do on 'take out the trash day'?

Foreign Secretary and Conservative leadership candidate Liz Truss walks outside Downing Street
Tory leadership race: Liz Truss extends lead over Rishi Sunak among Conservative party members, says poll

On the same day, the Treasury confirmed Mr Sunak would be cutting a trip short - reportedly by one day - to return from the US to hold talks with business leaders over the impact of the variant.

It followed questions around his whereabouts as cases rose, with Labour telling him to "leave Hollywood and come back to reality".

During an interview with Andrew Marr, Mr Sunak said: "What I did in December was fly back from a government trip I was on overseas.

"And I flew back to this country to stop us sleepwalking into a national lockdown, because we were hours away from a press conference that was going to lock this country down again because of Omicron."

He added: "I came back and fought very hard against the system because I believed that would be the wrong thing for this country, with all the damage it would have done to businesses, to children's education, to people's lives."

Mr Sunak made the remarks a day after reaching the final two in the Conservative leadership contest, facing Liz Truss on the ballot paper.

The foreign secretary is currently leading the race, according to a poll of Tory Party members, who will decide their next leader and the incoming prime minister over the next six weeks.

Mr Sunak said he was glad he "won" the argument last year, and said it should give voters confidence he was "prepared to push hard and fight for the things that I believe in even when that's difficult".

SKY

 

[MenInG]

Prime ministerial hopeful Rishi Sunak will put forward a major set of proposed policies for governing Britain with a series of announcements in the coming days to showcase his vision for the UK under new leadership.

A new policy on immigration and home affairs will be published this weekend followed by measures on the economy, security and levelling-up, a high-profile member of his team has said.

The next week will be vital for the former chancellor to make up ground on Liz Truss who the latest polls showed had surged 24 points ahead of him in a survey of Conservative members who will vote for the next leader.

But Robert Buckland, the Welsh Secretary and key supporter of Mr Sunak, told The National that “it's not at all clear yet who's going to win”.

“Liz has had a good start with those polls, but the make-up of the membership is largely unknown even to us,” he added. “It’s quite a mixed bag, they’re not all from the shires, they are much more diverse and complex in their approach.”

Mr Sunak’s team hope that Ms Truss’s bold move on Thursday stating that she would slash taxation to stimulate growth despite a potential £30 billion hit on government coffers will backfire.

Economists fear it could lead to a surge in interest rates and further stoke inflation with heavy government borrowing.

https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/worl...sedgntp&cvid=d479ffb388584b68be9c42cf4d8c6913

 

[James]

Preventing a fourth lockdown in December 2021 does go in Mr Sunak’s favour. That would have been an utterly ruinous disaster had it been implemented.

 

[MenInG]

 

[MenInG]

Stoke-on-Trent's Victoria Hall, where tonight's TV debate "Our Next Prime Minister" is being staged, promises "the best in live entertainment". We'll soon know if it lives up to its billing.

And it's Rishi Sunak, the self-proclaimed underdog in the Tory leadership contest, who needs to pull off a blockbuster performance for the TV audience if he's to close the gap on Liz Truss before it's too late.

There may be two more TV debates in the next 10 days – including the Sky News debate hosted by Kay Burley on Thursday 4 August – but time is already running out for the former chancellor in this contest.

That's because Tory HQ will send ballot papers to the 160,000 or more party members over the next week or so. And the experience of previous leadership contests – in all political parties – tells us the vast majority of members vote pretty quickly after their ballot paper lands on the front door mat.

So this evening's clash is crucial. Important for Liz Truss, obviously. She needs an assured performance, for sure, after being accused of appearing wooden in the earlier debates on Channel 4 and ITV.

But for Mr Sunak, the BBC's debate tonight is potentially make or break. He's trailing in all the polls and is the outsider with the bookies. He desperately needs not just a good performance, but a brilliant, game-changing one.

The Conservative Party's 12 hustings start this Thursday in Leeds and continue until their finale in London on 31 August. But for Mr Sunak, it's likely that the later hustings will be far too late to influence the outcome.

The Sky News debate in 10 days' time may be the former chancellor's last real chance to influence the voters in this contest.

The venue for tonight's clash is spectacular. Opened in 1888, it's a magnificent concert hall built for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee the previous year.

At the back of the hall is a glorious organ, built in Huddersfield for the Yorkshire Royal Jubilee Exhibition of 1887 and bought by a pottery tycoon for the Victoria Hall in the following year.

Mr Sunak will have to pull out all the stops tonight, although Ms Truss can't afford to soft pedal either.

These days the hall plays host to rock bands and comedians as well as classical music. In the coming weeks, national treasure Dawn French, rock legends 10CC, cult TV performer Jools Holland, controversial comedian Jimmy Carr and astronaut Tim Peake - on "My Journey into Space" – are on the bill.

And over the years, the top classical conductors who have waved their baton here in this hall include the mighty Sir Edward Elgar.

With her background as a Liberal Democrat and a Remainer, some might say Ms Truss is an enigma.

But it's Mr Sunak, struggling to make an impact in this contest, who tonight needs to show some variation.

SKY

 

[SpiritOf1903]

Starker v Truss will be like watching two wood puppets!

 

[Manunited18]

Sunak is owning Truss!

 

[Technics 1210]

Sunak is owning Truss!

Big time.

 

[Technics 1210]

Big time.

I meant Truss is owning Sunak!

Sunak is talking over Truss' response, and Truss seems to have more of direct answers.

 

[Manunited18]

I meant Truss is owning Sunak!

Sunak is talking over Truss' response, and Truss seems to have more of direct answers.

Do you think so?

 

[Technics 1210]

Do you think so?

Well, last 10-15 min may have changed that. Now Truss cannot answer straight, Sunak can. I cannot believe they are talking about £4.95 earings.

Though, I think Sunak may have edged tonight (in past 15 min) purely on the basis he received applause twice, Struss, zero.

 

[Manunited18]

Sunak is so slick, I'm going to give him the benefit of doubt, for me he will make a better PM.

 

[Technics 1210]

Truss receives her first applause!

 

[Manunited18]

Well, last 10-15 min may have changed that. Now Truss cannot answer straight, Sunak can. I cannot believe they are talking about £4.95 earings.

Though, I think Sunak may have edged tonight (in past 15 min) purely on the basis he received applause twice, Struss, zero.

I think come end of the campaigns Sunaks brilliant Media skills will give him the edge and he will be the PM

 

[Technics 1210]

I think come end of the campaigns Sunaks brilliant Media skills will give him the edge and he will be the PM

I kind of agree; the day of reckoning is upon us. As much as I despise the guy, I think he will edge it.

UK politics is just the same as any Western democracy; the choice is always between 2 evils.

 

[JaDed]

The older i get the more annoyed I get with political campaigns, I do believe in oration skills and skills of a politician to convey a message not based on victimhood.

Obama irrespective of his war issues has by far been my favorite Politician due to his legendary oratory skills, Rishi can’t even tie his shoelace.

 

[Manunited18]

I kind of agree; the day of reckoning is upon us. As much as I despise the guy, I think he will edge it.

UK politics is just the same as any Western democracy; the choice is always between 2 evils.

Yes.

 

[Technics 1210]

The older i get the more annoyed I get with political campaigns, I do believe in oration skills and skills of a politician to convey a message not based on victimhood.

Obama irrespective of his war issues has by far been my favorite Politician due to his legendary oratory skills, Rishi can’t even tie his shoelace.

Rishi can’t even tie, a tie!

 

[Manunited18]

Mind you the conservative members who were very loyal to Boris will need something extraordinary from Sunak to convince them. Sunak did just short of admitting he stabbed Boris in the back at the end! So convincing them is a tall order for Sunak.

 

[Technics 1210]

Mind you the conservative members who were very loyal to Boris will need something extraordinary from Sunak to convince them. Sunak did just short of admitting he stabbed Boris in the back at the end! So convincing them is a tall order for Sunak.

Very good point. Michael Gove's political career all but ended when he stabbed Boris in the back for Tory leadership. Bizzare, there is such a thing as "honour amongst thieves!"

 

[Manunited18]

Very good point. Michael Gove's political career all but ended when he stabbed Boris in the back for Tory leadership. Bizzare, there is such a thing as "honour amongst thieves!"

Yes. There's even talk in the media if Truss gets the PM role then there's a primary role for Boris on the front Bench.

 

[MenInG]

Former Tory leadership contender Tom Tugendhat has endorsed Liz Truss in the race to be prime minister, in a huge blow to Rishi Sunak.

Writing in The Times, Mr Tugendhat said that the foreign secretary's promises of tax cuts are based on "true Conservative principles" and that she can unite the party.

He said: "Liz has always stood up for British values at home, and abroad. With her at the helm, I have no doubt that we will move with determination to make this country safer and more secure."

Sunak grilled on tax rises and Truss gets new backer - latest leadership updates

Mr Tugendhat had pitched himself as the outsider who could make a clean break with a party mired in sleaze and scandal. But he was knocked out of the leadership contest in the third round of MPs' voting earlier this month.

The former soldier, who is chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said that after watching the candidates go head-to-head in live TV debates, "only one has convinced me she's ready".

He said both contenders have "huge qualities and many talents" but that Ms Truss has an advantage on the world stage because of her cabinet position.

Conservative leadership candidate Liz Truss speaking at a hustings event at the Pavilion conference centre at Elland Road in Leeds. Picture date: Thursday July 28, 2022.

Mr Tugendhat said the world "is getting more challenging" as fuel prices rise across the globe, and that we need a leader "with the foreign affairs experience to build alliances and keep our country safe".

He said: "That's where allies come in. As foreign secretary, Liz is starting with a huge advantage. She can make our voice count."

Mr Tugendhat has become the latest high-profile Tory to back Ms Truss.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace gave his backing to Ms Truss on Thursday night, describing her as "authentic, honest and experienced".

Mr Sunak was initially the frontrunner in the race, winning the most support from MPs in the first few rounds of voting.

But polling has shown Ms Truss is more popular among Conservative Party members, who will ultimately decide who will be the leader and next prime minister.

Despite this, Ms Truss has insisted that she is "not at all complacent" about her prospects.

Asked if she is confident she is now set to win the race, she said she is "fighting for every vote across the country".

"I'm the person who can get our economy growing, reduce taxes, but also unleash all of the opportunities of Brexit, and that's what I'm determined to do," she told reporters in Norfolk.

"I'm delighted to have the support of Ben Wallace. We've worked very closely together. He's been a fantastic defence secretary for our country."

In other developments, Rishi Sunak has vowed to review the Equalities Act to stop the "woke nonsense" he claims is "permeating public life".

Meanwhile, Ms Truss is pledging to "unlock" home ownership if she gets the keys to No 10 by helping renters prove they are ready to take on a mortgage.

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss will take part in a head-to-head debate on Sky News on Thursday 4 August at 8pm hosted by Kay Burley.

SKY

 

[SpiritOf1903]

He's levels above Truss!

 

[MenInG]

Rishi Sunak has vowed to review the Equalities Act to stop the "woke nonsense" he claims is "permeating public life".

While claiming he has "zero interest in fighting a so-called culture war", the Tory leadership hopeful pledged to "stand up to left-wing agitators" and "protect British freedoms" if he becomes prime minister.

It is his latest policy announcement to woo Conservative Party members who will decide whether he or rival Liz Truss get the keys to No 10 in just a few weeks time.

The foreign secretary, who has just unveiled a plan to help renters get on the property ladder, has also spoken out on issues of gender and identity - which have proved divisive in the Tory leadership race.

Mr Sunak said he wants to preserve gendered words such as "woman" or "mother" by ensuring sex means biological sex in the 2010 Equality Act.

He said the legislation - which ensures people with protected characteristics are not discriminated against - was "conceived in the dog days of the last Labour government".

Conservative leadership candidate Liz Truss speaking at a hustings event at the Pavilion conference centre at Elland Road in Leeds. Picture date: Thursday July 28, 2022.

Mr Sunak added: "It has been a Trojan horse that has allowed every kind of woke nonsense to permeate public life.

"My government would review the Act to ensure we keep legitimate protections while stopping mission creep."

The former chancellor said he also wants to clarify that gender self-identification does not have legal force.

He previously made this aim clear in the first public policy pledge of his leadership bid, when he said he would oppose biological males being allowed to compete against women in sport and protect single-sex services.

His plan to "protect British freedoms" also includes strengthening statutory guidance for schools on how they teach issues of sex and relationships so that pupils are "shielded from inappropriate material".

And he promised to protect free speech by ensuring organisations "are open and welcoming" to people with differing political opinions and religious and philosophical world views, "putting a stop to practices such as no-platforming".

He is expected to tell supporters in West Sussex today that his government would "safeguard our shared cultural, historical and philosophical heritage".

He will say: "What's the point in stopping the bulldozers in the green belt if we allow left-wing agitators to take a bulldozer to our history, our traditions and our fundamental values?

"Whether it's pulling down statues of historic figures, replacing the school curriculum with anti-British propaganda, or rewriting the English language so we can't even use words like 'man' 'woman' or 'mother' without being told we're offending someone?

"It's not us who are the aggressors; we have zero interest in fighting a so-called culture war.

"But we are determined to end the brainwashing, the vandalism and the finger pointing."

So called "culture-wars" have dominated the Tory leadership debate, despite YouGov polling showing just 8% of Conservative party members want "combatting the woke agenda" prioritised.

Former leadership hopeful Penny Mordaunt came under scrutiny for her stance on gender self-identification after leaked government documents suggested she had supported watering down the legal process for transitioning.

Ms Truss has also spoken out in favour of single-sex spaces, telling a hustings audience on Thursday that she backs a policy that guarantees schoolgirls can go to a toilet in a safe environment.

"I've been very clear that single sex spaces should be protected," she said.

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss will take part in a head-to-head debate on Sky News on Thursday 4 August at 8pm hosted by Kay Burley.

SKY

 

[James]

<b>Why Rishi Sunak’s Tory leadership campaign is failing</b>

<I>It remains possible that the former chancellor could yet turn the tables on Liz Truss – but even his supporters think it unlikely</I>

For a man whose campaign was built on the inevitability of victory, Rishi Sunak could hardly be further from his goal. Three weeks into the Conservative leadership race, polling suggests that Liz Truss, his opponent, is almost out of sight.

Mr Sunak’s team unquestionably overestimated his popularity with Conservative Party members and underestimated that of Ms Truss.

It remains possible that the former chancellor could yet turn the tables – but even his supporters think that unlikely, barring an unexpected trip-up by the Foreign Secretary.

Seasoned political campaigners say the reasons why the Sunak campaign has been such a flop – and there are many – have been obvious from the start.

Some believe his campaign was always going to be dead on arrival thanks to his recent track record in government and his “backstabbing” of Boris Johnson, but others think he could have been ahead by now if he had “got his messaging right”.

All agree that his about-turn on VAT cuts this week was a sign of panic and might have snuffed out the sputtering candle of his leadership bid.

“Quite simply, he is fighting the wrong election,” said one veteran of multiple Tory leadership campaigns. “You only ever deal with the electorate that is in front of you, not the next one.

“They are running the campaign as if they are fighting a general election, but they have to win this one first and it’s a very different electorate.”

Even the fact that Mr Sunak chose not to wear a tie for TV debates has been seen as a sign that he was trying to appeal to the general public rather than Tory members, who prefer their leaders more buttoned-up.

Accusations that Team Sunak does not understand the Tory membership crop up over and over again among MPs and strategists. Some blame Liam Booth-Smith, his former chief of staff at the Treasury and the keystone of his campaign team, for failing to make sure his boss is fully connected with members’ views.

Others blame Mel Stride MP, his campaign manager. Many blame Mr Sunak himself.

“He has a very safe seat in Yorkshire where he can have barbecues for friendly Tory types in the garden of his mansion,” said one MP. “He hasn’t spent enough time going up and down the country finding out what members really think, whereas Liz Truss does seem to grasp what the membership wants.” Such as tax cuts.

Another catastrophic miscalculation by the Sunak campaign has been the backlash against him for his pivotal role in bringing down Mr Johnson.

“Rishi and his team seemed to think that he would be hailed a hero for resigning and getting rid of Boris,” said another Tory MP. “They thought Liz Truss would be tainted by standing by Boris. But the membership hates back-stabbers – as Michael Gove found out – and values loyalty, and Truss made the right decision to stay on because a lot of the members still prefer Boris to either of them.”

Whether Mr Sunak could have done any better is open to debate. Those who have flocked to Ms Truss’s side believe his campaign was always doomed because of his high-tax policies as chancellor, but there are impartial observers who believe he could have been in pole position now.

“He had the best-prepared campaign and his team have been tooling up for months,” said one political strategist. “They had a big head start – but they had the wrong message, and if you have the wrong message it doesn’t matter how slick your campaign might be.

“Their message was: you might not love my economics but it’s successful so stick with me and we will be OK. And for people who didn’t agree with that, the second part of the strategy was: I’m a winner, I’m the one who can win the next election.

“Instead, they should have been selling the fact that he has promised tax cuts before the next election, that he is the one who spent £37 billion on handouts to help with energy bills, and that there would be more to come.”

Those looking from the outside in are also baffled by Mr Sunak’s decision earlier this week to promise to scrap VAT on energy bills for a year if he became PM – a measure he had opposed when it was suggested by Mr Johnson earlier this year.

“If you ask anyone who has run a successful political campaign, they will tell you that you never deviate from the core message,” said the strategist. “Dominic Cummings knows that, Alistair Campbell knows that. You set out your stall and you stick to it.

“Attacking Liz on the numbers could have cut through. They should have gone out every day and said her numbers don’t add up, they should have sharpened that message, hammered away at it relentlessly and made people doubt her credibility.

“But they have lost their nerve in a big way by saying they might cut VAT. That is a campaign in trouble. It’s out of their hands now, because they can’t criticise Liz on fairytale economics any more.”

At the start of the leadership campaign, members of Mr Sunak’s team told The Telegraph that they wanted to create an inevitability about his eventual victory. That, too, has backfired.

“There is an arrogance and an assumption that he would glide through,” said one Whitehall source. “Members pick up on that. The fact that the campaign website was registered in December, all that putting his signature on stuff, it annoyed a lot of people.”

Mr Sunak’s social media campaign is the remit of Cass Horowitz, the 31-year-old son of the author Anthony, who is credited with polishing up Mr Sunak’s image when he was chancellor and producing his slick campaign launch video.

“The slickness is a problem,” said a source who backed one of the unsuccessful candidates in the earlier rounds of the contest. “If you’re spending all your time worrying about camera angles and faffing around on Instagram, you’re not focusing on the important stuff.”

One of the key planks of the “inevitability of success” strategy was to get more than half of Tory MPs to publicly back Mr Sunak, proving to members that he could unite the party.

With three former chief whips on board – Gavin Williamson, Mark Harper and Mark Spencer – Mr Sunak was expected to come out of the gate with around 130 MPs backing him in the first round of voting, but only managed to get to 137 when the field had been whittled down to three, meaning fewer than four in 10 MPs were on his side.

Some MPs believe the figure would have been even lower, and that he might not have made it to the final two, had it not been for Mr Williamson “working his magic and convincing a lot of MPs the Rishi train was unstoppable”, meaning they needed to back him if they wanted jobs in a future Sunak government.

With many MPs undeclared, increasing numbers, such as Ben Wallace, are now backing Ms Truss and not Mr Sunak because she has the momentum and they are convinced she will win.

A lack of humility has also characterised the Sunak campaign: “A lot of his advisers still see him as the golden boy who did furlough and was the most popular member of the government for a while,” said a Whitehall source.

“Some of the people around him can’t see anything other than ‘he’s great’, which is why they came up with that ‘Ready for Rishi’ slogan. What does that even mean? It suggests that people need to get ready for him as PM because he’s already won, and people don’t like that sense of entitlement.”

Mr Sunak lost the support of some Tory members by interrupting Ms Truss more than 20 times in 12 minutes during the BBC head-to-head hustings event – a trait that should have been ironed out by his team in their exhaustive rehearsal sessions.

One Tory source who knows him well said: “He is a calm and smiling character on the outside, but there is an angry and arrogant man waiting to break out – and we saw flashes of that in the TV debate.

“Liz has been around longer, she has been the butt of jokes, she has been the punchline on Have I Got News For You, and she has developed a thicker skin.”

Mr Sunak, of course, was once hailed as the new face of the Right by none other than Ms Truss. He has now veered so much to the centre that he has been compared to a socialist. Tory members could be forgiven for wondering which is the real Mr Sunak.

“I think his Right-wing credentials were always exaggerated,” said one minister who has worked with him. “He is ultimately very much an establishment figure. He supported Brexit but then did absolutely nothing about it. It was a play for the Right rather than something he wanted to go up and down the country championing.

“It’s very much the old Cameroons who are behind him, and that makes sense because he represents their view of the world.”

Others say Mr Sunak was ensnared by the “Treasury orthodoxy” in the three years he spent as chief secretary to the Treasury and then chancellor.

“Very few chancellors are able to stand up to Treasury orthodoxy,” said a senior Conservative source. “Most chancellors go along with it, and that is the trap that Rishi Sunak fell into.

“That’s why he reversed the corporation tax cut. It damaged his reputation with the Right, who thought he might as well be the permanent secretary of the Treasury as chancellor. I’m not sure he was ever going to recover from that.”

It is striking that most of his campaign team worked with him in the Treasury, and his campaign manager Mr Stride is a former Treasury minister, giving them a somewhat narrow world view.

“Rishi is a banker and a former chancellor surrounded by Treasury people, whereas Liz is a pure politician,” said the PR strategist.

“Rishi will look at data and decide that people are still able to pay their bills so he doesn’t need to take more action just yet, whereas Liz understands that it’s not just about numbers, it’s about how people feel. Boris understands that, Blair understood it, but Rishi doesn’t seem to.

“People who can still pay their bills and have enough money left to go on holiday might not be struggling – but they are worried about what’s coming, and Liz understands that. It affects confidence, and if you can restore confidence that goes a long way. A spreadsheet doesn’t really tell you that.”

For now, Mr Sunak needs to hope he can keep the gap small enough for him to take advantage if Ms Truss falters.

“This is probably the first time in his life he has had to confront the possibility of failure,” said one former colleague. “It will take him a long time to get over it if he loses.”

DT

 

[Markhor]

Watched his interview with Andrew Neil yesterday. He sounds like another George Osborne/David Cameron. Very slick presentational skills and a people pleaser - almost too slick to the point of being slippery.

He opposed a windfall tax then supported it, he opposed cutting VAT on energy bills then supported it. Say what you want about Dominic Cummings but he's an astute reader of the Tory Party - and he says Sunak is basically a product of the Treasury Establishment, and while clearly intelligent will just follow Establishment policies.

Whereas Liz Truss, despite an unrealistic wishlist of policies, seems more authentic to the Tory base although she's had her share of flip flops over her career, including supporting Remain.

 

[Markhor]

<b>Why Rishi Sunak’s Tory leadership campaign is failing</b>

<I>It remains possible that the former chancellor could yet turn the tables on Liz Truss – but even his supporters think it unlikely</I>

For a man whose campaign was built on the inevitability of victory, Rishi Sunak could hardly be further from his goal. Three weeks into the Conservative leadership race, polling suggests that Liz Truss, his opponent, is almost out of sight.

Mr Sunak’s team unquestionably overestimated his popularity with Conservative Party members and underestimated that of Ms Truss.

It remains possible that the former chancellor could yet turn the tables – but even his supporters think that unlikely, barring an unexpected trip-up by the Foreign Secretary.

Seasoned political campaigners say the reasons why the Sunak campaign has been such a flop – and there are many – have been obvious from the start.

Some believe his campaign was always going to be dead on arrival thanks to his recent track record in government and his “backstabbing” of Boris Johnson, but others think he could have been ahead by now if he had “got his messaging right”.

All agree that his about-turn on VAT cuts this week was a sign of panic and might have snuffed out the sputtering candle of his leadership bid.

“Quite simply, he is fighting the wrong election,” said one veteran of multiple Tory leadership campaigns. “You only ever deal with the electorate that is in front of you, not the next one.

“They are running the campaign as if they are fighting a general election, but they have to win this one first and it’s a very different electorate.”

Even the fact that Mr Sunak chose not to wear a tie for TV debates has been seen as a sign that he was trying to appeal to the general public rather than Tory members, who prefer their leaders more buttoned-up.

Accusations that Team Sunak does not understand the Tory membership crop up over and over again among MPs and strategists. Some blame Liam Booth-Smith, his former chief of staff at the Treasury and the keystone of his campaign team, for failing to make sure his boss is fully connected with members’ views.

Others blame Mel Stride MP, his campaign manager. Many blame Mr Sunak himself.

“He has a very safe seat in Yorkshire where he can have barbecues for friendly Tory types in the garden of his mansion,” said one MP. “He hasn’t spent enough time going up and down the country finding out what members really think, whereas Liz Truss does seem to grasp what the membership wants.” Such as tax cuts.

Another catastrophic miscalculation by the Sunak campaign has been the backlash against him for his pivotal role in bringing down Mr Johnson.

“Rishi and his team seemed to think that he would be hailed a hero for resigning and getting rid of Boris,” said another Tory MP. “They thought Liz Truss would be tainted by standing by Boris. But the membership hates back-stabbers – as Michael Gove found out – and values loyalty, and Truss made the right decision to stay on because a lot of the members still prefer Boris to either of them.”

Whether Mr Sunak could have done any better is open to debate. Those who have flocked to Ms Truss’s side believe his campaign was always doomed because of his high-tax policies as chancellor, but there are impartial observers who believe he could have been in pole position now.

“He had the best-prepared campaign and his team have been tooling up for months,” said one political strategist. “They had a big head start – but they had the wrong message, and if you have the wrong message it doesn’t matter how slick your campaign might be.

“Their message was: you might not love my economics but it’s successful so stick with me and we will be OK. And for people who didn’t agree with that, the second part of the strategy was: I’m a winner, I’m the one who can win the next election.

“Instead, they should have been selling the fact that he has promised tax cuts before the next election, that he is the one who spent £37 billion on handouts to help with energy bills, and that there would be more to come.”

Those looking from the outside in are also baffled by Mr Sunak’s decision earlier this week to promise to scrap VAT on energy bills for a year if he became PM – a measure he had opposed when it was suggested by Mr Johnson earlier this year.

“If you ask anyone who has run a successful political campaign, they will tell you that you never deviate from the core message,” said the strategist. “Dominic Cummings knows that, Alistair Campbell knows that. You set out your stall and you stick to it.

“Attacking Liz on the numbers could have cut through. They should have gone out every day and said her numbers don’t add up, they should have sharpened that message, hammered away at it relentlessly and made people doubt her credibility.

“But they have lost their nerve in a big way by saying they might cut VAT. That is a campaign in trouble. It’s out of their hands now, because they can’t criticise Liz on fairytale economics any more.”

At the start of the leadership campaign, members of Mr Sunak’s team told The Telegraph that they wanted to create an inevitability about his eventual victory. That, too, has backfired.

“There is an arrogance and an assumption that he would glide through,” said one Whitehall source. “Members pick up on that. The fact that the campaign website was registered in December, all that putting his signature on stuff, it annoyed a lot of people.”

Mr Sunak’s social media campaign is the remit of Cass Horowitz, the 31-year-old son of the author Anthony, who is credited with polishing up Mr Sunak’s image when he was chancellor and producing his slick campaign launch video.

“The slickness is a problem,” said a source who backed one of the unsuccessful candidates in the earlier rounds of the contest. “If you’re spending all your time worrying about camera angles and faffing around on Instagram, you’re not focusing on the important stuff.”

One of the key planks of the “inevitability of success” strategy was to get more than half of Tory MPs to publicly back Mr Sunak, proving to members that he could unite the party.

With three former chief whips on board – Gavin Williamson, Mark Harper and Mark Spencer – Mr Sunak was expected to come out of the gate with around 130 MPs backing him in the first round of voting, but only managed to get to 137 when the field had been whittled down to three, meaning fewer than four in 10 MPs were on his side.

Some MPs believe the figure would have been even lower, and that he might not have made it to the final two, had it not been for Mr Williamson “working his magic and convincing a lot of MPs the Rishi train was unstoppable”, meaning they needed to back him if they wanted jobs in a future Sunak government.

With many MPs undeclared, increasing numbers, such as Ben Wallace, are now backing Ms Truss and not Mr Sunak because she has the momentum and they are convinced she will win.

A lack of humility has also characterised the Sunak campaign: “A lot of his advisers still see him as the golden boy who did furlough and was the most popular member of the government for a while,” said a Whitehall source.

“Some of the people around him can’t see anything other than ‘he’s great’, which is why they came up with that ‘Ready for Rishi’ slogan. What does that even mean? It suggests that people need to get ready for him as PM because he’s already won, and people don’t like that sense of entitlement.”

Mr Sunak lost the support of some Tory members by interrupting Ms Truss more than 20 times in 12 minutes during the BBC head-to-head hustings event – a trait that should have been ironed out by his team in their exhaustive rehearsal sessions.

One Tory source who knows him well said: “He is a calm and smiling character on the outside, but there is an angry and arrogant man waiting to break out – and we saw flashes of that in the TV debate.

“Liz has been around longer, she has been the butt of jokes, she has been the punchline on Have I Got News For You, and she has developed a thicker skin.”

Mr Sunak, of course, was once hailed as the new face of the Right by none other than Ms Truss. He has now veered so much to the centre that he has been compared to a socialist. Tory members could be forgiven for wondering which is the real Mr Sunak.

“I think his Right-wing credentials were always exaggerated,” said one minister who has worked with him. “He is ultimately very much an establishment figure. He supported Brexit but then did absolutely nothing about it. It was a play for the Right rather than something he wanted to go up and down the country championing.

“It’s very much the old Cameroons who are behind him, and that makes sense because he represents their view of the world.”

Others say Mr Sunak was ensnared by the “Treasury orthodoxy” in the three years he spent as chief secretary to the Treasury and then chancellor.

“Very few chancellors are able to stand up to Treasury orthodoxy,” said a senior Conservative source. “Most chancellors go along with it, and that is the trap that Rishi Sunak fell into.

“That’s why he reversed the corporation tax cut. It damaged his reputation with the Right, who thought he might as well be the permanent secretary of the Treasury as chancellor. I’m not sure he was ever going to recover from that.”

It is striking that most of his campaign team worked with him in the Treasury, and his campaign manager Mr Stride is a former Treasury minister, giving them a somewhat narrow world view.

“Rishi is a banker and a former chancellor surrounded by Treasury people, whereas Liz is a pure politician,” said the PR strategist.

“Rishi will look at data and decide that people are still able to pay their bills so he doesn’t need to take more action just yet, whereas Liz understands that it’s not just about numbers, it’s about how people feel. Boris understands that, Blair understood it, but Rishi doesn’t seem to.

“People who can still pay their bills and have enough money left to go on holiday might not be struggling – but they are worried about what’s coming, and Liz understands that. It affects confidence, and if you can restore confidence that goes a long way. A spreadsheet doesn’t really tell you that.”

For now, Mr Sunak needs to hope he can keep the gap small enough for him to take advantage if Ms Truss falters.

“This is probably the first time in his life he has had to confront the possibility of failure,” said one former colleague. “It will take him a long time to get over it if he loses.”

DT

Yep that's a very fair column.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

No Brit would ever trust such an opportunistic back stabber regardless of how slick he presents himself. We know his type ultimately and we will NEVER trust them.

 

[topspin]

No Brit would ever trust such an opportunistic back stabber regardless of how slick he presents himself. We know his type ultimately and we will NEVER trust them.

Would you rather have Liz Truss leading the country over Rishi though?

 

[topspin]

No Brit would ever trust such an opportunistic back stabber regardless of how slick he presents himself. We know his type ultimately and we will NEVER trust them.

I disagree with this view because Boris appointed Chris Pincher despite being fully aware of the sexual abuse allegations made against him.

For Rishi and many other Conservative MPs, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. No one in their right mind can be associated with someone like that.

For anyone to call a Rishi a backstabber either has no knowledge of the above or simply has complete and utter disregard for those who've been a victim of sexual assault.

 

[MenInG]

Sajid Javid has thrown his support behind Liz Truss as the next Conservative Party leader, in what will come as a huge blow to Rishi Sunak.

The former health secretary, and ex-leadership hopeful, attacked Mr Sunak's economic policies as he revealed his choice in The Times this evening.

He suggested Mr Sunak's refusal to cut taxes meant the UK risks "sleepwalking into a high-tax, low-growth economy" with a loss of "global influence and power".

Whereas he said Ms Truss had a "bold agenda" that can beat Labour and "save Britain from sliding into the middle ranks".

He wrote: "Some claim that tax cuts can only come once we have growth. I believe the exact opposite - tax cuts are a prerequisite for growth.

"Tax cuts now are essential. There are no risk-free options in government. However, in my view, not cutting taxes carries an even greater risk."

Liz Truss says she would 'support and extend' the governments controversial Rwanda deportation policy 'to more countries'

Tory Party members have heard a lot from the candidates, but will have to wait a little longer before casting their votes
Tory leadership ballot papers delayed due to security fears

Mr Javid launched a leadership run on a platform of swift tax cuts but quickly pulled out, struggling to win enough nominations from Tory MPs to go through to the first round of voting.

The former health secretary quit Boris Johnson's cabinet in June, leading a wave of resignations.

In his letter to the prime minister, Mr Javid said he could "no longer, in good conscience, continue serving in this government" as he referenced the tone and values of Mr Johnson reflecting "on your colleagues, your party and ultimately the country".

He added: "It is clear to me that this situation will not change under your leadership - and you have therefore lost my confidence too."

Mr Javid is the latest high profile Tory MP to back Ms Truss, after she received the support of Tom Tugendhat and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace last week.

Liz Truss MP has extended her poll lead over Rishi Sunak after her public sector pay plan U-turn.
The foreign secretary's bid for the Tory leadership was also boosted by two surveys giving her massive leads.

She won a 34-percentage point lead over Mr Sunak in a YouGov poll of party members, before a survey for the ConservativeHome website put her 32 ahead.

However she has insisted she is taking nothing for granted, as a delay in ballot papers being issued due to cyber security concerns gave her rival a little more time to catch up.

Ms Truss and Mr Sunak will take part in another Conservative party leadership hustings this evening in Cardiff as the race to Number 10 continues.

Voting will close in the contest on 2 September, with the winner expected to be announced on 5 September and to replace Mr Johnson the following day.

As the leadership race continues to heat up, Mr Sunak and Ms Truss will once again face the cameras this week on Sky News.

Taking place on Thursday 4 August at 8pm at Sky Studios in west London, The Battle for Number 10 will see the candidates take part in back-to-back questioning from the live studio audience made up of Conservative Party members who remain largely undecided on who to vote for.

SKY

 

[Technics 1210]

Ouch! Sajid Javid stabs the snake in the back! Lovely! So heart warming to see!

 

[Technics 1210]

I am sure the BJP controlled media will spin this as a Pakistani destroying all hope and shattering the dreams of an ethnic Indian becoming the first ever desi PM of UK!

No need to spin it, it’s the blatant truth.

At this rate, Truss will kick Sunak out of her cabinet, and promote Sajid Javid -as Home Secretary or #11?

 

[James]

Can feel a coordinated effort within the senior parliamentary party to pressure Sunak into withdrawing from this. He is being fully deserted by his colleagues and is miles behind in all of the polls. As Boris says, “in Westminster, when the herd moves, it moves”. Actually one of the more incisive things that he has said.

 

[Technics 1210]

Can feel a coordinated effort within the senior parliamentary party to pressure Sunak into withdrawing from this. He is being fully deserted by his colleagues and is miles behind in all of the polls. As Boris says, “in Westminster, when the herd moves, it moves”. Actually one of the more incisive things that he has said.

Boris has played a blinder; I firmly believe he is behind the tide against the Sunak the snake.

 

[James]

Boris has played a blinder; I firmly believe he is behind the tide against the Sunak the snake.

The blonde assassin having the last laugh.

 

[Technics 1210]

The blonde assassin having the last laugh.

Indeed, his last stealth kill.

I will miss Boris.

 

[Manunited18]

Boris has played a blinder; I firmly believe he is behind the tide against the Sunak the snake.

No doubt about it. I would say it's Cummins v Johnson behind the scenes, with Johnson on top so far.