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Tory leadership rivals stepped up their attacks on each other’s records and policies in their latest TV debate.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak tax rises he introduced would “choke off” growth.
Mr Sunak accused Ms Truss of peddling “something-for-nothing economics”. Other flashpoints were trans rights, Brexit and trust in politics.
All five ruled out an early general election if they become prime minister in seven weeks’ time.
At one point, the candidates were asked to raise their hands if they would give departing Prime Minister Boris Johnson a job in their cabinet. None of them did.
MPs will vote for a third time on Monday as they whittle down the field to two, who will then face postal ballot of Tory members to decide who will be the next prime minister.
In the hour-long ITV debate, some of the fiercest clashes were between Mr Sunak and Ms Truss, whose divisions over how to bring rising living costs under control while growing the economy were laid bare.
The record of Mr Sunak – who won the first two rounds of MPs’ voting – as chancellor has come under sustained attack during the leadership campaign.
Mr Sunak has been forced to defend tax rises introduced during his time as chancellor, including April’s hike in National Insurance to pay for social care and the NHS.
In the debate, Ms Truss said Mr Sunak had “raised taxes to the highest level in 70 years”, arguing that this was “not going to drive economic growth”.
“The fact is that raising taxes at this moment will choke off economic growth, it will prevent us getting the revenue we need to pay off the debt,” Ms Truss.
Mr Sunak responded that the pandemic damaged the economy and the money has to be paid back.
“There’s a cost to these things and the cost of higher inflation, higher mortgage rates, eroded savings,” Mr Sunak said. “And you know what? This something for nothing economics isn’t Conservative. It’s socialism.”
Trade minister Penny Mordaunt – the bookmakers’ favourite to win the race – said the limited tax cuts she advocated were not inflationary and people need help now with the cost of living.
“I don’t understand why Rishi doesn’t understand that,” she said.
But Mr Sunak hit back, accusing Ms Mordaunt of a “dangerous” plan to scrap his economic rule of only borrowing to invest.
The former chancellor said even Jeremy Corbyn – the left-wing former Labour leader – did not advocate such a loosening of the public finances.
There were also sharp exchanges between Ms Mordaunt and former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch over a row about the self-identification for transgender people.
Ahead of the debate, Ms Mordaunt told the BBC there were a “number of smears going on in the papers” and dismissed claims she had backed gender self-identification when she was an equalities minister in 2019.
“I think this whole thing is unedifying,” Ms Mordaunt said. “I know why this is being done. What I would say to you is, all attempts to paint me as an out of touch individual will fail.”
Ms Badenoch said she was the candidate for the future whose honesty could “change things for the better”.
Other key moments in the debate included:
- Mr Sunak defended his wife Akshata’s previous non-domiciled tax status and her family’s wealth, arguing theirs was “an incredibly Conservative story”
- Pointing out Ms Truss had been a Liberal Democrat and a Remain supporter in the past, Mr Sunak asked her which one she regretted most. Ms Truss said she had “been on a political journey”
- Ms Badenoch accused Mr Sunak of not taking her seriously when she raised concerns about Covid loan fraud, which he denied
- When asked if they would sit next to Russia President Vladimir Putin at a G20 summit, all but Ms Truss said they would not. Ms Truss said she would “call Putin out”
- All candidates said they would back the UK’s commitment to curb carbon emissions to net zero by 2050
A bloody battle
The key feature of these debates so far has been how willing the candidates are to tear lumps out of each other.
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are regularly going into battle – strongly criticising each other’s economic plans. If they get into the final two, the next few weeks look likely to be just as heated for the Tories.
Tonight we also saw Kemi Badenoch go for the former chancellor. Tom Tugendhat too was critical of the other candidates for lending credibility to Boris Johnson’s government.
This is proving to be a brutal and bloody battle to be prime minister. It might not be easy to heal some of the wounds.
Tom Tugendhat – chairman of the foreign affairs select committee – said those who had been ministers under Mr Johnson “lent credibility to the chaos” of his government.
Grilling Ms Mordaunt, Mr Tugendhat challenged the trade minister to give the “details of the plans you are laying out”.
In reply Ms Mordaunt said: “I think there’s a couple of things we need in order to win the next general election: one of them is me as the prime minister because the polling shows that I’m the only one that can beat Keir Starmer and take the fight to Labour.”
The five remaining candidates are vying to succeed Mr Johnson as Tory leader and prime minister after a cabinet mutiny forced him to resign.
In a sign of how close the race has become, a survey of party members for the Conservative Home website on Saturday suggested Ms Badenoch was leading the pack, with Truss in second and Mordaunt – currently the bookmakers’ favourite – dropping to third.
But Mr Sunak is still in pole position after coming top in the first two rounds of voting among Tory MPs.
