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Key takeaways from the leadership discussion
Martin Bellam The five candidates still running for the leadership of the Conservative party were in action in a televised debate broadcast on Channel 4 on Friday night. Here are the five key takeaways: Tom Tugendhat was the only one who could answer freely Given the chance to answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the question ‘is Boris Johnson honest?’, Tom Taggedhut was the only person who could do so. He received a standing ovation for simply saying, “No.” Kemi Badenoch moved closer saying “Sometimes.” Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss all refused to be drawn into the one-word answer and were challenged. Tugendhat essentially played the role of the minority party candidate in a multi-party debate, free to simply speak his mind, call out the hypocrisy of everyone else, while safe in the knowledge that there is almost no chance of him ever getting elected. Truss has a delivery mantra problem Truss tried again and again to focus on delivering in each department, saying her trade deals with Australia and Japan were considered impossible and that she had stood up to Vladimir Putin. But it all felt strongly scripted by her. Badenoch and Tugendhat felt more off the cuff and Sunak was a more fluid performer here than he has been on the radio in the last 48 hours. Truss felt rigid and dogmatic. Sunak’s experience at the Treasury is a potential asset – but not with party members In a critical exchange that was mostly Sunak v Truss, the foreign secretary told the former chancellor that Covid was a once-in-a-century phenomenon and that the government should consider its long-term payback accordingly. Sunak was clear, saying: “The best way for people to have money in their pocket is to catch inflation.” Time and time again during the debate he demonstrated a better grasp of numbers and the Treasury, but you ended up with the feeling that a man instinctively fiscally conservative is being pushed into a corner and presented as a leftist because he doesn’t want to cut taxes You can read more here: Chart showing how the next leader of the Conservative party will be chosen
What happened in the conversation?
Peter Walker In an often difficult night for all candidates – former chancellor Rishi Sunak. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. Penny Mordaunt, the trade secretary and bookmakers’ favourite. former leveling minister Kemi Badenoch; and supporter Tom Tugendhat – not a single member of the floating voter audience raised their hands when asked if they trusted the politicians. In a long section on trust, none of the five were willing to say whether Johnson was being honest. “Sometimes,” said Badenoch, while Mordaunt spoke of “really serious issues” and Truss spoke of “mistakes”. Tugendhat won the applause by simply saying, “No.” In a separate show of hands after a debate on energy bills, only three people said they felt politicians were doing enough to help people. When asked at the end of the debate whether it had made them more likely to vote Conservative, only 10 in the audience raised their hands. Mordaunt and Badenoch clashed with visible hostility over the former’s views on transgender rights. When Truss refused to support her version of events about policies at the government’s equalities office, Badenoch said: “Come on Liz, tell the truth.” Mordaunt, meanwhile, asked about negative updates about her from some of the other camps, refused to say she trusted the other candidates. Updated at 07.54 BST
Tory candidates ‘scratching each other’s eyes’ – Starmer
Good morning. Last night, the five remaining candidates to become the next Conservative leader, and therefore prime minister, went head-to-head in a live televised debate. The debate saw open arguments about taxation and identity politics – and none of the five candidates were prepared to say that Boris Johnson is honest. Hours after Liz Truss tried to revive her faltering campaign with a surprise announcement of new tax cuts costing more than £20bn a year, former chancellor Rishi Sunak openly mocked his former colleague’s plans during his talk show Channel 4. You can read my colleague Peter Walker’s full report on the debate here. The candidates during the debate last night Photo: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock Meanwhile, Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer has dismissed the grueling Conservative leadership race as a “travelling circus” in which candidates have undermined their party’s financial credibility by promising billions of pounds of unfunded tax cuts. He tells the Guardian’s political editor that the party “no longer makes sense of what it stands for”. “That’s why you have all these candidates scratching each other’s eyes, taking lumps out of each other,” he said. We’ll be bringing you all the latest political developments in the UK throughout the day as they happen. Updated at 07:50 BST
