Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was prepared for ex-Chancellor Rishi Sunak to take her on this week in televised debates about the race to be Britain’s next prime minister, but not quite so ferociously.
“For the televised debates we prepared for three scenarios: that he went on the attack, that it was Mr Patrons, or a mixture of both,” said a Truss ally. “We were surprised at how aggressive he was.”
But at the end of a week of bruising political combat between the two candidates to succeed Boris Johnson as Tory leader, it was Sunak more than Truss who was on the defensive.
The former chancellor’s attacks on the foreign secretary and his policy interventions, whether on China or tax, were directed at Sunak, leaving him reeling.
“Almost everything he’s tried, he’s done worse,” said David Gauke, a former Conservative minister. Bookmakers now have Sunak usually a 5-1 to win the racewith Truss the red favorite at 1-8.
Time is running out for Sunak: More than 150,000 ballots are set to arrive at Tory members’ doorsteps on Monday, meaning voting to choose the party’s next leader will begin next week.
Sunak hopes a series of 12 searches of party members, which began in Leeds on Thursday, will provide him with a route back. But Truss performed well in his home town and one member accused Sunak of “stabbing” Johnson in the back by resigning as chancellor this month.
Sunak’s strategy of presenting himself as the serious leader for tough times so far seems to have failed. Instead, Truss has portrayed the former chancellor as the continuity candidate, unable to break free from the orthodoxies of the Treasury and leading Britain into recession.
Throughout this week, Sunak has sought to close the gap with Truss, most notably during a prime-time BBC1 debate on Monday, when he frequently interrupted the Foreign Secretary to attack his “inflationary” plans to cut immediately taxes
Opinion polls after the debate suggested that viewers thought the event was essentially a draw, but many viewers complained about the interruptions. Truss’ team accused Sunak of “aggressive sleight of hand”.
Then, after spending much of his campaign criticizing Truss for proposing rapid tax cuts, Sunak on Tuesday announced his own £4bn “temporary” reduction in value added tax on bills of domestic energy.
Sunak insisted the move would help curb inflation, but as chancellor he had previously rejected the VAT cut, saying it was misdirected at helping rich and poor households.
The Truss team described Sunak’s VAT proposal as an “explosive U-turn”. Johnson, who had wanted to cut VAT but was blocked by Sunak, joked that it now looked “easier than we thought”.
Sunak’s attempts to cast himself as a China hawk also self-destructed, after it emerged on Thursday that he made plans as chancellor for a major UK-China economic and financial conference. The meeting was later scrapped.
Sunak has discovered the problems of running for the Tory leadership as a former chancellor – the person in government whose job it is to make tough calls that are considered to be in the national economic interest. Hoping to run with his record, Sunak instead seems trapped by it.
Johnson’s allies, who accused Sunak of treason by quitting the government and prompting the prime minister’s premature exit, have reveled in his difficulties as they seek to thwart his leadership bid.
A Johnson ally said Sunak had “mutilated the whole pitch” of his leadership campaign, presenting himself as a Leaver backed by some of the party’s most important Remainers and claiming to be a tax-cutter who had actually chaired a great expansion of the state. as chancellor. “He’s basically on the wrong side of the party members on every major issue,” the Johnson ally added.
While Truss has told Tory members of his tough stance with Brussels on Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trade deals, Johnson’s supporters highlighted how Sunak favored a softer stance to avoid sparking a trade war with the EU
Sunak’s decision to raise National Insurance contributions to pay for the extra spending on the NHS and social care, which Truss opposed at the time, is now cited by Johnson’s supporters as proof who was a “socialist” chancellor.
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Meanwhile, Truss is turning into the Conservative leadership contest. After appearing as a wooden automaton in the first televised debate on Channel 4, his human side has come out in subsequent ones, most notably recoiling in horror when presenter Kate McCann collapsed at a TalkTV event on Tuesday.
The Foreign Secretary, who campaigned for Remain in the 2016 EU referendum, has learned a lot from the Vote Leave campaign. He is accusing Sunak of running “Project Fear” saying his unfunded tax cuts could make the UK economy worse.
Sunak’s team hoped that by now opinion polls would suggest that ordinary voters prefer him to Truss. Although YouGov produced one poll This week, showing that Sunak was more popular among swing voters, the evidence is far from overwhelming.
Tory MPs who support Sunak are desperate. One said: “The campaign has not worked well. The campaign started as an undersea operation, doing as little media as possible and avoiding scrutiny. Then they panicked and have to put it everywhere.”
Supporters of the former chancellor insisted he could still turn things around. They said there were still weeks to go in the contest – the result of the Tory members’ vote will be declared on September 5.
Tory MPs who backed Sunak for the party leadership are urging Tory members to back the former chancellor because Truss is more likely to win the next election. “That’s persuasive,” said one MP.
But other MPs backing Sunak warned his chances of becoming the next Tory leader were slim, and the clock was ticking fast.
A former minister said: “It will be a big windfall if Liz doesn’t win it now.” Another former minister said that Sunak “hasn’t happened much.” The concrete is starting to sink.”
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