My quick surprise is that Rishi Sunak has done nothing to torpedo his position as the current front-runner among MPs, even if he hadn’t put up a performance that would have wowed the audience. Tugendhat was clearly the favorite candidate for the studio audience, but he’s not really credible to make the bottom two, which leaves Badenoch, Truss and Mordaunt. I don’t think any of the three had a particularly stellar night. I didn’t feel Mordaunt shone, Truss perhaps had her best moments when she was stuck with Sunak on taxes and borrowing (even if you think he’s more financially reliable) and Badenoch was very good at bringing things back to personal level, but her platform of “telling the truth” is still pretty light on actual policies. Here’s an interesting snap poll from Opinium that shows good news for Tugendhat – as far as the audience is concerned anyway. 🚨BREAK – SPECIFIC CHAT POLL🚨 Tonight we asked over 1000 regular voters to watch the debate and we just asked them who they thought performed best. Results: Tugendhat 36%Sunak 25%Mordaunt 12%Badenoch 12%Truss 6% pic.twitter.com/0q4IliqQNM — Opinium (@OpiniumResearch) July 15, 2022 Opinium also has some polling on how people of different political persuasions felt the contest went, which is broadly similar. Among the 2019 Tory voters was a neck and neck between Tugendhat and Sunak. However, among Conservative voters (who will decide whether the Tories get a majority at the next election) the results were: Tugendhat 33%Sunak 28%Mordaunt 14%Badenoch 12%Truss 6% pic.twitter.com/A3Xrq4nioD — Opinium (@OpiniumResearch) July 15, 2022 Updated at 21.24 BST Important events: Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature
Summary of the day
The five remaining Conservative candidates to be the UK’s next prime minister took part in a televised debate on Channel 4 on Friday night. Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Tom Tugendhat took part in a program hosted by Krishnan Guru-Murthy.
In an often difficult night for all candidates, Sunak openly ridiculed Truss’ tax plans. Condemning what he called a wider “unfunded spree of borrowing and more debt” among his rivals, he condemned Truss’ proposal to delay repayment of public debt built up by Covid. “There is no Covid debt,” a visibly irritated Sunak told the foreign minister. “Debt is debt. And the answer to excessive borrowing cannot be yet more borrowing. It is so simple.”
Mordaunt and Badenoch clash with visible hostility over the former’s views on transgender rights. Mordaunt, meanwhile, asked about negative updates about her from some of the other camps, refused to say she trusted the other candidates.
A lengthy section on confidence saw none of the five willing to say whether the prime minister they hope to replace, Boris Johnson, was honest. “Sometimes,” said Badenoch, while Mordaunt spoke of “really serious issues” and Truss spoke of “mistakes”. Tugendhat won the applause by simply saying, “No.”
Despite pressure from some senior Tories, including former Brexit secretary David Frost, to unite behind a single candidate representing the right of the party, Badenoch’s team said it had “no intention of quitting and wants to win”.
Badenoch and Truss refused to answer questions put to them by the LGBT+ Conservative group by today’s 1pm deadline. The team gave each of the candidate leaders a three-question questionnaire. Tugendhat, Sunak and Mordaunt managed to respond in time, although the team has since contacted Badenoch and Truss to encourage them to submit their responses.
Boris Johnson plans to hold parliamentary interventions on Ukraine, Brexit and Brexit, with allies of the outgoing prime minister suggesting these are the areas of his legacy they believe are most under threat from his potential successor.
Channel 4 said an investigation into claims by Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries that a reality TV show featured second-hand paid actors found no evidence of tampering. The broadcaster asked producers of the 2010 reality show Tower Block of Commons, in which Dorris was one of the MPs who went to live in deprived communities, to investigate the claims she made to the culture select committee in May.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer visited a section of the Berlin Wall earlier today while on a trip to the German capital to meet politicians and business leaders. Starmer was depicted by the landmark, built in 1961 by communist authorities to divide East and West Berlin.
That’s it from me, Martin Bellam, for tonight. Thanks to my colleague Tom Ambrose for his live blogging earlier today. Tom will be back with you tomorrow, and I’ll be here on Sunday. Come with us. In the meantime, I suspect you might also enjoy John Crace’s sketch of today’s debates and discussions. On the issue of the climate crisis, of the five candidates tonight, Kemi Badenoch remained the only candidate who would not commit to the UK’s current net zero commitment. He said: The commitment was made in 2018 for 2050, none of us are going to be here as politicians in 2050, it is very easy to set a target that you will not be responsible and accountable for when the time comes. The important thing is to ensure that we do this in a sustainable way. Many of the things we do could hurt our country financially. My colleague Helena Horton wrote earlier today that, after initial alarm from the Green Conservatives about how little the environment featured in the leadership contest debate, Sunak, Mordaunt, Truss and Tugendhat had all committed to 2050. Michael Gove is doubling down on his support for Kemi Badenoch after tonight’s debate. He says he “has the right stuff.” Kemi wins among the Newsnight judging panel – she’s got the right stuff — Michael Gove (@michaelgove) July 15, 2022 That’s what Sam Coates, Sky News’ deputy political editor, had to say in his live analysis earlier when the debate ended. He suggested it was a strong performance from Rishi Sunak and a tough night for Liz Truss: Two things dominated tonight, the issue of trust and the economy. And what was really impressive was Rishi Sunak’s ability to drag this discussion about the economy on his own terms. He grilled both Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss about their tax plans. Whether the nation could afford them. They may or may not increase inflation. He was the one framing the argument and putting the others under pressure, even though arguably his plan, which isn’t helping as much now as these two, is a harder sell to the country. He went on to say about the current Foreign Minister: Tonight was also important for Liz Truss. Her court pieces were clearly pretty tough. She essentially stands by her decision not to quit Boris Johnson’s government and has pledged her loyalty to him even now, but it didn’t seem to go down particularly well with the public. Sometimes I agree that if your candidate has done or said something dumb, it’s best to lean into it on social media on the basis that “any publicity is good publicity” and “people will talk about us and not somebody elsewhere.” So while I admit I might fall into this trap, there seems to be a lot of confusion on social media about what exactly Penny Mordaunt meant by this statement – “The top 180 innovations we’ve had. How many are used in the NHS. None” – or because her social media team would make it graphic. Photo: Twitter As you can probably imagine, the snippets of tweets were a sight to behold, mainly a procession of NHS staff pointing out some very basic ‘innovations’ they use, such as the wheel and electricity or the good old throwback to a Monty Python reference : “Apart from the internet, penicillin, recombinant antibodies, MRI scanners, CAT scans, lateral flow tests … what inventions has the NHS ever used?” Update: the tweet in question was later deleted, so a screenshot has been added. Updated at 23.36 BST Harry Lambert offers this analysis of tonight’s New Statesman: Liz Truss has the support of 64 MPs, but no wavering MPs can be encouraged to join her camp after tonight’s performance. This was no surprise – I suggested that Truss would perform poorly tonight, as anyone who has watched the Foreign Secretary answer questions before air probably would have done, and I think the Tory right would be wise to let her and to shake behind Kemi Badenoch (who is fourth among the deputies, with the support of 49). Badenoch was the calmer and more confident performer tonight. But I don’t expect the Tory right to line up, and that will keep Mordant on course for a run-off with Sunak. Read more here: New Statesman – Who won the first televised Tory leadership debate? Some of tomorrow’s headlines are out and you can see exactly where some have hitched their wagons. For the Mail, it’s news of a “Liz tax boost for families” as they trumpet a plan from the Truss camp for “a radical overhaul of the tax system”. “It wants to ensure that parents are not penalized for taking time out of work to look after family members,” the paper says, adding that “couples with young children or caring responsibilities”. She is also referred to as Miss Truss on the front page. The Telegraph, meanwhile, leads the way with Penny Mordaunt saying she’s “up to the job”. You can also get ‘free’ sun lotion with the Daily Mail tomorrow, although it costs £3.95 P&P and doesn’t link the extreme heat in the country…
