Here’s a rundown of the runners and riders – and what we know about their political and social positions.
Tom Tugendhat
The ex-soldier won the support of Damian Green, the chairman of One Nation’s Conservative MPs group, giving him a lead over the more moderate Tory Jeremy Hunt. Launching his candidacy with an op-ed in the Daily Telegraph, Tugendhat struck a unifying note, pledging to “bridge the Brexit divide” but also calling for an immediate reversal of the recent rise in national insurance – also opposed by Labour.
Jeremy Hunt
As chair of the health and social care committee during the Covid crisis, Hunt stuck to health policy and patient safety, about which he recently wrote a book. However, his policies when he took over in 2019 included raising the National Insurance cap – a tax cut for low to middle income earners – and increasing defense spending to 2.5% of GDP, which Boris Johnson also recently supported . He was also less hard-line on Brexit, speaking out against the no-deal option.
Penny Mordant
A staunch Brexiteer, Mordaunt angered Remainers during the 2016 referendum campaign by wrongly claiming the UK would not have a veto over Turkey’s EU membership. On economic policy, she veers to the left of the Tories, however, she supports food banks (called ‘dog shops’) in her North Portsmouth constituency and is pushing for more government action on the cost of living crisis. She is also an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights.
Sajid Javid
Javid cast himself as a low-tax Tory after standing down as chancellor in 2020, but after replacing the disgraced Matt Hancock as health secretary, he pushed hard for more spending on health and social care and signed off on the plan to increase national insurance contributions for its financing. He also focused on health disparities in his latest post and previously highlighted the importance of further education colleges, having attended himself.
Nadhim Zahawi
Perhaps unsurprisingly for an independent wealthy former businessman – the second richest MP in parliament after Sunak – the new chancellor has already hinted that he would like to see business tax cut. He also suggested other tax cuts could be in the pipeline, although Johnson’s caretaker cabinet has since vowed to save major budget decisions until a new leader is in place.
Rishi Sunak
Sunak’s politics are very dry on tax and spending: like Philip Hammond and George Osborne before him, he has championed the importance of getting public finances under control, in his case, even when that meant increasing of taxes in the face of an economic downturn. He is socially liberal, although he has enlisted the anti-awakening warrior Oliver Dowden in his campaign team and is a fan of American entrepreneurship.
Liz Truss
Truss campaigned for Remain in 2016 but has since become an enthusiastic Brexiter and has taken a hard line in recent months on the Northern Ireland protocol. Like many of the candidates, he is expected to call for a lower tax burden. He has also long been a proponent of a right-wing version of individual liberty, memorably hailing a generation of “freedom fighters driving Uber, Airbnb, Deliveroo.”
Suella Braverman
The attorney-general began her leadership by promising to “get rid of all this rubbish that has woken up” and also said there is an “entitlement culture” in the UK that is “out of control”. A dyed-in-the-wool Brexiter, she recently won plaudits from the right wing of the party by giving the legal nod to the Northern Ireland Protocol bill, despite many experts suggesting it breaches international law.
Kemi Badenoch
The former Equality Secretary, who is known for her willingness to embrace controversy over culture war issues, said she was putting herself forward because she wanted to “tell the truth”. Writing in the Times, the Saffron Walden MP hit out at “identity politics” and said Boris Johnson was “a symptom of the problems we face, not the cause of them”. He added that he supported lower taxes “to stimulate growth and productivity, and to be accompanied by strict spending discipline.”
