I am the candidate most feared by Labour. (This is probably little more than an idle boast. Some Labor figures say the same in private.) Updated at 10.59 BST Important events: Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature
Tom Tugendhat says defense budget should be protected from ‘bean counters’ – but claims it’s not a dead end at Sunak
Ben Quinn Conservative leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat has denied making a criticism of Rishi Sunak after he said defense spending should be protected by “bean counters or spreadsheets”. Speaking outside parliament, he also insisted that the contest must go to a vote of party members “because otherwise democracy in the party will be undermined”. The former soldier and chairman of the foreign affairs committee also told reporters: When we talk about defense spending, we must be absolutely clear that we will never compromise the security of our country because of bean counters or spreadsheets. Safety always comes before spreadsheets. So this is one of those times where we have to be very careful as we fight this battle of ideas that we make sure that what we do enhances British power. Questioned about whether he would get on with Sunak – who reportedly resisted pressure for a big increase in UK defense spending when he was chancellor and who insisted Britain should not be told “comfort tales” about spending – Tugendhat said that it was not . He told reporters: I’m not going to name anybody, but it’s absolutely up to you to look, very carefully, at where people are talking about different things and exactly where different people are setting their sights and setting their sights, so to speak, for defense. Tom Tugendhat speaking to reporters this morning. Photo: Toby Melville/Reuters Q: How do you define a woman? Mordaunt says she is biologically female. And he says that as someone who has served in the Royal Navy (as a reservist) and fought against men, “you understand the biological difference between men and women.” This is. The launch is over.
Mordant refuses to say that Johnson was a good prime minister
Q: Was Boris Johnson a good prime minister? Mordaunt says: “I think we should thank him for delivering Brexit – it was an incredibly difficult thing – and I think we should remember him for that.” Updated at 11:00 BST Mordaunt was asked what appears to be a question about trans people and how you define a woman. (It’s not clear, because the questioner is not using a microphone, so viewers can’t hear.) Mordaunt replies: It was Margaret Thatcher who said every prime minister needs a Willie. A woman like me does not. Updated at 11.01 BST
Mordaunt claims she is ‘Labour’s most feared candidate’
Mordaunt says that if the Tories do not win the next election, the prospect of Brexit gains will be lost. She is the most likely candidate to win the election for the Tories, he says. She continues: I am the candidate most feared by Labour. (This is probably little more than an idle boast. Some Labor figures say the same in private.) Updated at 10.59 BST
Mordaunt is downplaying, but not ruling out, the prospect of an early general election being called
Q: People don’t know who you are. If you win, will you call an election to take office? Mordaunt says she stood on the same platform as other MPs. They have a mandate. The British want to step up and deliver it, he says. Mordan now answers questions. In response to one about her family policy, she says she proposes to spend the same amount of money, only distributed differently. Updated at 11.02 BST i’s Paul Waugh says this is the best campaign launch speech he’s heard in this competition. Attractive, fresh, full of politics and with a strong sense of its own character. This presentation by @PennyMordaunt is the most impressive Tory leadership launch speech yet. — Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) July 13, 2022 Mordaunt says the British public has moved on during the pandemic. They are capable and responsible people. They expect their government to be too. Mordaunt says she is committed to manifesto commitments on defense spending and keeping the NATO defense promise. But it would also take over some duties from the defense forces, he says. He says he wants to create a civil defense force to deal with civil defense issues. Mordaunt now talks about her family politics. (See 9.29am) It says it will also create special forces to improve access to GPs and dentists and speed up building. He says he wants to align government planning cycles with the business and philanthropic sectors, which are already aligned. Mordaunt says Whitehall needs change. Under her, it would be done quickly. There would be a tighter cabinet, with ministers giving clear timetables for delivery. It says its main fiscal rule is that debt as a percentage of GDP must decline over time. She continues: My monetary policy will be to control inflation and our supply-side reforms will deliver a Brexit dividend in investment, infrastructure, stimulus and innovation. He says he would have a “relentless focus on cost of living issues”. On day one it would halve fuel VAT at the pumps. And they would raise income tax brackets for top and middle earners in line with inflation. Mordaunt says that recently the Tory party has lost its sense of self. Comparing it to Glastonbury, he says it was like hearing Paul McCartney play his new songs. What people want are the old things, he says: concepts like a small state and personal responsibility. He says the public is fed up with the government not delivering. Updated at 11.10 BST
Penny Mordaunt launches Tory leadership campaign
Penny Mordaunt is launching her campaign. She is recommended by Andrea Leadsom, the former cabinet minister, who describes her as absolutely honorable. Mordaunt says she made the parliamentary equivalent of speed dating as she met MPs. MPs are people who want to serve, he says. They are people who want to take responsibility. He says he wondered why. In her case, it goes back to being nine years old and watching the Falklands task force leave Portsmouth. She says she didn’t know much about it at the time, but she knew her country stood up to the bullies. And that was important—important enough to keep some of her classmates’ fathers from coming home. He says Britain does not need a new role in the world. “We just have to be ourselves.”
Sunak says his economic policy amounts to ‘common sense Thatcherism’
Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor seen as a front-runner in the Tory leadership contest, gave an interview to the Daily Telegraph in which he presented his economic approach as “common sense Thatcherism”. He told the paper: We will cut taxes and we will do it responsibly. This is my financial approach. I would describe it as common sense Thatcherism. I believe that would do. Sunak also suggested that his upbringing, as the son of a chemist, had some parallels with Thatcher’s. He explained: If you read her speeches – and I’ve quoted her and Nigel Lawson [the former Tory chancellor] in other lectures I have given – her approach to these things was to make sure that as a nation you should earn what you spend. Talk about the person at home with their family budget. He spoke about it very loudly. That resonated with me, because that’s how I grew up. My mom was a small business woman, she was a chemist. I was working in my mum’s little chemist in Southampton. I did my mom’s books – that was part of my job. I also did payroll and accounts every week and every month. Rishi Sunak at his campaign launch yesterday. Photo: Carl Court/Getty Images
Zahawi said he would give Johnson a cabinet job if he wanted it
Nadhim Zahawi is also making the media rounds this morning. Here are the highlights.
Zahawi said he would be willing to offer Boris Johnson a cabinet post. Asked about it on LBC, he said:
Boris Johnson has been my friend for 30 years. If he wants to serve in the cabinet, I would definitely offer him a job. There is precedent for a former prime minister to return to cabinet in a more junior role. Alec Douglas-Home was Foreign Secretary under Edward Heath after a brief spell as Prime Minister in the early 1960s. However, it is generally thought that Johnson would not want to return to the Cabinet and would prefer to concentrate on books, to give speeches and earn a lot of money.
Zahawi described Johnson as “probably the most important prime minister of his generation”. He told LBC:
[Johnson] he was perhaps the most consistent prime minister of his generation. If you go back to Margaret Thatcher, John Major, then Tony Blair and of course Gordon Brown and then David Cameron and Theresa May and now Boris Johnson. He delivered Brexit. Given how transformative Brexit has been, this is understandable. (Transformative is not the same as good.)
Zahawi said he would only cut income tax when inflation falls. He said on the Today show:
What I’m talking about is the income tax until next year, so I hope to see inflation come down and of course interest rates come back to lower levels than today.
This clarification aligns Zahawi’s tax position – which was widely condemned as unrealistic when it was first revealed – more closely with that of Rishi Sunak. Zahawi also said his tax cut plans were fully costed and that he would release all the details later.
He defended his decision to issue an open letter last Thursday morning saying Johnson should resign, just about 36 hours after agreeing to serve as Johnson’s chancellor. He said that…
